Why Yannick Bolasie Would Not Be a Great Signing for Liverpool

Liverpool welcome Crystal Palace to Anfield on Saturday, with one heavily rumoured potential target in the Eagles' midst. But Yannick Bolasie would be far from a great signing for Reds manager Brendan Rodgers.

Rodgers' Palace counterpart, Alan Pardew, responded to speculation linking Bolasie with an Anfield switch back in January, as reported by TalkSport:

"

Like with any player you can never say never, and I learnt that at Newcastle losing Andy Carroll [to Liverpool] on the last day of the window [in January 2011]. 

So never say never, but I think it would take an extraordinary bid to take him away from this football club in the situation we are in, and I would be very surprised if any club wanted to make that phone call.

"

Pardew reinforced his stance last month, relayed by the Mirror's Neil McLeman, declaring: "I'll sell Yannick, if someone wants to give me £40 million-£60 million—that would be good. We'll build the team around that money."

Rodgers should take that as a cue and dissolve any potential interest. Bolasie is nowhere near the right target for Liverpool.

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Yannick Bolasie

It's clear that Pardew's valuation is fanciful, but it serves to stress Bolasie's importance to Palace.

Since joining the Selhurst Park side from Bristol City in 2012, Bolasie has slowly become one of the club's key players.

Having so far scored four goals and made six assists in 32 league games this season, Bolasie may look to lack a genuine end-product, but it is the way in which he stretches games with pace, tenacity and skill that truly marks his value.

This became abundantly clear to Liverpool supporters in last season's 3-3 draw away to Palace last May—a result that effectively consigned the Reds to a second-placed finish in the Premier League, with their gung-ho approach punished by Bolasie and Dwight Gayle.

He relentlessly exploited the abysmal Glen Johnson, making eight successful dribbles and laying on an assist on the break for Gayle.

This decimation saw Johnson roundly criticised, before the Liverpool right-back took to Twitter to bizarrely lambast the "sofa experts" who had justly noted how easily Bolasie had humiliated him throughout the game:

Rodgers clearly hadn't learned his lesson from that clash, as Bolasie was once again the star in Palace's 3-1 victory in the same fixture in November. This time up against a then-20-year-old Javier Manquillo, Bolasie made three successful dribbles and registered another assist.

This season, Bolasie has made 84 successful take-ons—the fifth most of any player in the league, behind only Chelsea's Eden Hazard (160), Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez (110) and Liverpool pair Philippe Coutinho (99) and Raheem Sterling (97).

However, toward the latter stages of this season, Bolasie has refined his game even further, with a hat-trick in April's 4-1 win away to Sunderland—Palace's first ever in the Premier League. Adding goals to his game with regularity could see Bolasie inch closer to Pardew's ridiculous valuation.

Bolasie is developing into an even more formidable attacking talent at 25, but is he the right fit for Liverpool?

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Liverpool's Summer Requirements

This season's loss to Palace highlights exactly where Liverpool need to reinforce in the summer.

While the game started in spectacular fashion for Rodgers—with Rickie Lambert latching on to a perfectly weighted, lofted ball from Adam Lallana to fire home—the Reds were repeatedly stretched by Bolasie and Co., and their attacking deficiencies became apparent in terms of both style and quality.

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The lumbering Lambert struggled to negotiate a solid back line of Martin Kelly, Scott Dann, Brede Hangeland and Joel Ward, while second-half substitute Fabio Borini failed to add the requisite dynamism to revive hopes late on.

Lambert's inclusion came as a result of injuries to Daniel Sturridge and Mario Balotelli, with Borini a meagre option as backup.

This summer, Liverpool's requirements come primarily in that area.

Lambert, Borini and Balotelli have all failed to nail down the striker's role under Rodgers, while Sturridge has missed the majority of the season.

Liverpool have scored less than half the amount of goals (50) this season as they did in 2013/14, when Sturridge and Luis Suarez inspired a 101-goal league haul.

"

Lambert, Borini and Balotelli this season: 5 goals. Suarez goals vs Norwich last season: 5 goals. We really need a top striker again.

— Saw_aaf (@4ever_liverpool) April 29, 2015"

Liverpool need proven quality in the attacking areas this summer to replace the likely departing trio of Lambert, Borini and Balotelli, supplement the struggling Sturridge and support Sterling and Coutinho who, at 20 and 22 respectively, cannot be solely relied on to provide the spark in attack.

But is signing Bolasie from Palace the right move? Precedent suggests otherwise.

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Mid-Table Premier League Risks

Since Fenway Sports Group's takeover of Liverpool in 2010, the Reds have made many, many mistakes in the transfer market.

Unfortunately, and tellingly, many of these have come with taking risks in signing mid-table Premier League players. The fear is that Bolasie would be just another of those failing little-fish, big-pond acquisitions.

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In their first season at the helm, FSG provided the funds to sign Paul Konchesky from Fulham and, as Pardew mentioned, Andy Carroll from Newcastle United.

2011/12 brought Charlie Adam from Blackpool, Stewart Downing from Aston Villa and Jose Enrique from Newcastle.

This season, Lambert, Lallana and Dejan Lovren all arrived from Southampton.

Each of these players thrived without the weight of Anfield expectations at their former clubs, but they can be considered veritable failures in Liverpool red. Konchesky, Carroll, Adam and Downing were all quickly discarded by Rodgers, while it is likely that Lambert and Enrique will see the exit door this summer.

Bolasie's own team-mate, Wilfried Zaha, is a prime example of the risks of signing from lower-level Premier League sides, with the explosive winger representing a costly transfer mistake by former club Manchester United, who signed him from Palace in 2013 before sanctioning his permanent return last summer.

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Of course, it would be reductive to suggest this is an entirely avoidable strategy—Bolasie himself was a £500,000 punt when Palace took him from Bristol City, while Jordan Henderson and Simon Mignolet, both formerly of Sunderland, can now be considered key players under Rodgers.

But, as Reds captain Steven Gerrard testified this week, Liverpool need to be bold and decisive in this transfer window.

"I think there is a core of potential. The important thing for me is adding some players to that who are ready," Gerrard told James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo. He continued:

"

For me, I wouldn’t buy any more potential in the short-term. I would buy players that are ready to come and fight and win and help this team to be successful. 

[...]

We need to bring players in those forward positions that can score 25 to 30 goals and you will see Liverpool do an awful lot better next season.

"

Bolasie, while a fearsome attacking player for Palace, would be yet another risk for Liverpool.

Pardew is right to cling on to the 25-year-old with his strong words and overvaluations, but as Rodgers looks to stymie the threat of Bolasie once again at Anfield on Saturday, he should not be adding him to his list of transfer targets this summer.

Statistics via WhoScored.com and Squawka.com.

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