Liverpool eager to land AS Monaco winger Thomas Lemar following Philippe Coutinho’s £146m FC Barcelona move

Liverpool are reportedly hopeful of replacing Philippe Coutinho with France international forward Thomas Lemar, according to the Mirror.

The Premier League side, who defeated Merseyside rivals Everton 2-1 in the third round of the FA Cup on Friday night, have been linked with signing the AS Monaco winger as fellow midfielder Coutinho completes his reported £146m switch to La Liga giants FC Barcelona this week.

Lemar, 22, who has eight international caps for his country, has scored two goals and provided four assists in 18 appearances in all competitions for the defending Ligue 1 outfit so far this season.

The left winger, who is also interesting Premier League rivals Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United this month, has netted 21 times in 107 games overall for Monaco since arriving from Caen back in 2015.

Monaco’s Thomas Lemar in action with Besiktas’ Ricardo Quaresma.

The report suggests Reds boss Jurgen Klopp is determined to sign a star player to replace Coutinho during this month’s transfer window, with the Frenchman his number one target, despite Monaco’s insistence they do not want to sell any key players during January.

However, the French side did accept a £90m offer from Arsenal for Lemar back in August, only for the transfer to fall through late on.

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