Scouting report: Perr Schuurs, Reds Target Young Dutch Centre-Back

Rough Around The Edges But With Bags of Potential

Liverpool are in the market for a centre-back this summer. Among the players linked, Perr Schuurs has jumped up on the radar this week (apart from the midfield madness). He apparently wants a move to Anfield, although believing in transfer rumours is as bad as believing in your enemy.

The 23-year-old is currently a Torino player in the Serie A after arriving from Ajax last summer. He started his career as a youth player at Dutch club Fortuna Sittard before permanently moving to Ajax in June 2018.

We remember him doing well against Liverpool in the two Champions League group stage games during the 2020/21 campaign. He is yet to make a senior debut for the Netherlands but has a total of 26 appearances for the various national youth sides.

Believe it or not (you may know this anyway), but Schuurs had a trial with the Liverpool U18s in May 2017 when Steven Gerrard was managing the academy side. 

With some parts of the introduction done, let’s take a deeper look at the player, what his profile and numbers say and whether he can be a good addition to the Liverpool squad, provided they sign him.

Player Profile - Perr Schuurs

Schuurs has predominantly operated as a centre-back throughout his career thus far. He has played in different systems at the back and done well to adapt accordingly. Since arriving at Torino though, the 23-year-old has mostly played as a right-sided centre-back in a three-man central defensive system.

There were a couple of games where he moved to the centre but that was it. He is a technically strong defender with great passing accuracy and good defensive reading of the game. 

Below, we have his heat-map of his preceding season in Italy to show where all he wanders when playing in a three-man central defence - 

Not many surprises here. Although the young Dutchman does not make a lot of carries (only eight per 90), his average carry progress distance is the fourth-best among the Torino players in the 22/23 campaign (6 metres).