Luis Suarez and Karim Benzema Reportedly Eyed for Liverpool and Real Madrid Swap

Real Madrid are drawing up a list of players to offer to Liverpool in order to lure Luis Suarez away from Anfield in January, with Karim Benzema topping the pile.

Adrian Kajumba of the Daily Star reports that Benzema is no longer wanted at Madrid and will be used as a significant makeweight that drives down the price of Suarez.

Kajumba writes:

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Suarez still wants out of Anfield, despite Liverpool’s impressive start to the season …

The Uruguayan has his heart set on a move to Carlo Ancelotti’s Madrid – and the Spanish giants hope offering Liverpool a big-name replacement for Suarez plus cash will tempt them to sell.

Madrid value Benzema at £20m, making the overall package worth around £40m.

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The deal is almost certainly not going to act as much temptation for Liverpool, who know Suarez is the key that can open the door back to the Champions League.

He has already scored six league goals in his four appearances this season, and his partnership with Daniel Sturridge is being heralded as the most lethal in the Premier League, per Jamie Redknapp's Daily Mail column.

Benzema resembles everything that Suarez does not.

The France international lacks the movement and lung-busting enthusiasm of Liverpool’s No. 7. He rarely beats a man and does not consistently display the hunger that Brendan Rodgers demands from his blossoming squad.

The Madrid man has registered 0.1 attempts to dribble per game this term, according to WhoScored, producing an average of three shots per match.

Suarez, by contrast, attempts over three dribbles per game and nearly six shots on goal.

By offering Benzema plus £20 million, Liverpool will surely feel the overall £40 million package falls way below their valuation of Suarez, which stood at over £50 million prior to his stunning start to the new campaign, per the Sun (subscription required).

Madrid almost certainly cannot reach that figure in a cash bid, so Kajumba reports that several other players are earmarked for a potential swap deal:

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Madrid are over £500m in debt and spent almost £150m on summer transfers, including £86m on Gareth Bale.

Fabio Coentrao, Sami Khedira and Angel Di Maria are among those who Madrid are willing to offload to help fund their move for Suarez.

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Of those three players, Khedira and Di Maria are likely to be most tempting—even more so than Benzema—to Rodgers. The Liverpool boss only has Lucas Leiva for a holding midfield option, while Di Maria would provide much pace and threat out wide:

However, Khedira is keen on a reunion with Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, according to the Daily Star's Jack Wilson, while Di Maria remains desperate to stay at Madrid—as he showed when he fought harder than Mesut Ozil to stay over the summer, per Zinedine Zidane via Inside Spanish Football.

The balancing act will arrive for Liverpool if it becomes clear behind closed doors that Suarez, as Kajumba claims, still wants to leave in the summer.

Currently the Reds could sell from a position of strength as they sit third in the table, with Suarez firing on all cylinders and seemingly happy with life on Merseyside.

Should they wait until the summer, Liverpool could face a scenario in which they are without Champions League football. That would likely lead to another public attempt by Suarez to depart.

Rodgers must make the best choice for the future of the club.

Benzema, though, is not it.