Lazar Markovic is being linked with a return to Benfica this summer. Portuguese daily newspaper A Bola claims the Lisbon giants have informed the Reds they’d be interested in taking him back but understand a deal may be difficult.
Other well placed sources have suggested that there are concerns within the club that Markovic may not be equipped to thrive in English football and therefore might be one of those offloaded this summer. Should that prove to be the case, it’s unlikely the Reds will get anything like the £19.8m they paid for him a year ago. Benfica certainly won’t pay that amount, although a loan deal has been suggested in some reports.
The 21 year old showed flashes of what he could do in a spell around the turn of the year but for much of the season he found himself on the periphery and Markovic suffered more than most from Brendan Rodgers not having a settled formation. Having failed to force his way into the 4-2-3-1 set up early in the season he did enjoy some early success in an unfamiliar wing back role when Rodgers changed tactics, but that didn’t last and he lost his place to Jordon Ibe when the teenager returned from a loan spell in January.
As with several of last summer’s signings, Markovic is currently regarded as a flop but he’s hardly been helped by the constant chopping and changing and formation switches, Rodgers rarely played the 4-3-3 system that Markovic had presumably been signed to fit into and unless that changes this year then it’s difficult to see where the Serb will fit in once again, especially as he appears to be behind the likes of Ibe, Adam Lallana, Philippe Coutinho and - for the moment at least - Raheem Sterling.
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