Is this 22-year-old Liverpool star one of the Premier League’s best box-to-box midfielders?

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Over the last 18 months, a sizeable portion of Liverpool players have been pilloried for their performances as the club continues to flounder on the pitch. Expensive signings such as Christian Benteke, Dejan Lovren, Mario Balotelli, Adam Lallana and Lazar Markovic have come in for heavy criticism from Reds supporters, while the hapless Simon Mignolet has been roundly blasted for a series of blunders in recent months. Liverpool’s squad is sorely lacking in consistent performers, but there is one young midfielder who rarely fails to live up to what is asked of him.

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Brendan Rodgers’ track record of signings during his time in charge at Anfield was chequered to put it politely, but one of his best coups was to recruit Germany’s Emre Can from Bayer Leverkusen. The box-to-box midfielder only recently turned 22, but he plays with a maturity that would make you think he is a long-established stalwart of the Premier League. His selfless attitude would endear him to any manager and he has been a regular presence in the starting XI under fellow countryman Jurgen Klopp, who craves the type of commitment that Can demonstrates on a regular basis. It is a commitment that can occasionally overflow, as evidenced with a needless red card in last season’s 4-1 thrashing by Arsenal, but with too many Liverpool players going into hiding in tough situations, Can is one of the precious few who can be relied upon to give his all.

He is a player noted for his versatility, filling in sporadically at centre-back and right-back when the need arose, but a rare off-day in the latter position in that dreadful game at Stoke last May ensured that he is unlikely to ever be deployed in that role again any time soon. Such a nightmare showing could shatter such a young player mentally, but Can is made of sterner stuff.

When operating in his best position in the heart of midfield, ably carrying out both the defensive and attacking responsibilities of his job description, we see a player who has that combination of technical quality and work ethic which Liverpool fans demand.  He is tenacious in the tackle, comfortable on the ball and, in a nutshell, does the simple things perfectly 99% of the time. He has only found the net twice since joining the Reds, a superb strike in a home defeat by Chelsea in November 2014 and the first Liverpool goal of Klopp’s reign away to Rubin Kazan three months ago. However, Can wasn’t bought with the primary responsibility of scoring goals, unlike several other considerably pricier recruits who operate as forwards.

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He isn’t a player who will magnetically attract headlines. He isn’t a player who is assured of nomination in the PFA Team of the Season. However, nobody at Liverpool right now fits that billing, and with the Reds hamstrung by arguably their weakest squad of players in the last 20 years, the starting point for recovery is to have players who at least look comfortable in the Premier League and can be depended upon to selflessly surge from box to box for the entirety of their time on the pitch. Appropriately for a German, Can is a model of trustworthy efficiency, and one of the best exponents of his role in the English top flight at the moment.

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