After investing heavily in dramatically revamping their attack, Liverpool have bolstered their defensive line with the £26 million signing of center back Giovanni Leoni from Serie A side Parma. At just 18 years of age, the Italy youth international is still just dipping his toes in the pool of top-level senior football, but the Reds have seen enough from 14 league starts to sanction a quick move.

Leoni began the 2024-25 campaign on the bench, but by Christmas he’d gained a foothold in the first team. Then, over the course of the second half of the season, he helped firm up the defense and convert losses to draws — enough of them to keep the Crociati safe from relegation.

So with his Premier League switch confirmed, how did Liverpool pick their target and what will Leoni bring to the defending champions?

How Liverpool identified and signed Leoni

For years, signing a promising young central defender has ranked highly on Liverpool’s list of priorities. Last summer, the Anfield club was interested in signing Lille’s Leny Yoro before he eventually joined Manchester United. The Reds were also admirers of Bournemouth’s Dean Huijsen, who made a £50 million move to Real Madrid earlier this summer.

In just 17 Serie A appearances for Parma last term, Leoni established himself as one of Italian football’s most exciting young talents, and he fits the profile the Premier League champions have been seeking. He is understandably far from the finished article, but Liverpool are confident the 6-foot-4 defender has all the physical attributes required to develop into a world-class center back, particularly with the opportunity to learn from his idol, Virgil van Dijk.

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Having made his breakthrough for Parma under manager Cristian Chivu during the second half of last season, there had been talk of Leoni following his coach to Inter Milan this summer. However, Liverpool — aided by sporting director Richard Hughes’ extensive contacts in Italy — were able to move quickly to get a deal over the line, with sources telling ESPN the player was adamant on a transfer to Anfield despite interest from several clubs in his home country and elsewhere in the Premier League.

There had been some suggestion that Liverpool might look to loan out Leoni this season, though this idea has quickly been dismissed by the club’s hierarchy. Despite Liverpool still pursuing a deal for England international defender Marc Guéhi, Leoni is set to join Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté and Joe Gomez among manager Arne Slot’s first-team center back options for the upcoming campaign. — Beth Lindop

What Leoni brings to Liverpool

Leoni’s sheer size and strength belies his tender age. He is still a teenager, but he cuts a hulking figure on the pitch and his shoulders seem as if they’re made of steel. He clearly relishes physical duels with equally powerful forwards, too; during the final stretch of the season, he physically dominated Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic en route to a vital 1-0 win, and Leoni also stood up brilliantly to Romelu Lukaku in a 0-0 draw with Napoli, going as far as man-marking him for spells and literally following him around the pitch.

This ability to handle strong No. 9s is by far his standout trait. He’s aggressive on the ground and strong in the air — his 63% aerial win rate in Serie A last season was among the best — and he thrives defending the box, already showing good awareness for where crosses and cutbacks might land.

Leoni is versatile within his position, able to play as the right- or left-sided center back in a back four, or anywhere across the line in a back three. When stationed at the center of a three-man setup, he tends to step out, roam and find someone to duel.

There are coaching points for Liverpool to address. His pass selection last season tended to be extremely safe, either playing it short to the nearest man, back to the goalkeeper, or chipping it upfield in the general direction of a forward runner. That might have been a tactical instruction rather than a personal shortcoming — Parma fought against relegation until the final day, meaning they were really in no position to commit to risk buildup play — but Slot will want to see more considered use of possession whenever the ball is at Leoni’s feet.

Leoni also never carried the ball upfield and into space, opening up the pitch for himself and others. Again, that could have been by design but given that he has joined an elite, ball-dominant team, it’s worth noting that he ranked in the 1st (i.e., lowest) percentile in Serie A for ball-carrying and just the 6th percentile for progressive passing. — Sam Tighe

How Leoni will fit at Liverpool

To have any chance of success as a center back in the Premier League these days, you’re probably going to have to be big and strong. Look at the physical build of the defensive corps that Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool have assembled, for example; Leoni clearly ticks that box. He will be well-suited to the titanic battle that now takes place at set pieces, no matter the opponent, and a good fit when it comes to facing the influx of really physical strikers we’re seeing in the Premier League.

However, there might be a small concern over the fact that while Leoni should grow into a powerful player, he lacks the sort of top-end speed and mobility many of the best center backs possess. According to Gradient, his maximum speed topped out at 31.82 km/h last season, just 54th among Serie A center backs who played 900 minutes or more. For a Liverpool comparison, Van Dijk registered 33.79 km/h, and Konaté 33.57 km/h.

Given that Liverpool’s fullbacks are likely to operate in an extremely attacking fashion, recovery speed and mobility traits in the team’s center backs will be more important than ever. The fact that Leoni is hardly rapid jumps off the tape, and the statistics confirm it. He’s not the quickest over 5 yards either and isn’t particularly smooth changing direction or decelerating.

The rest of his game can be easily finessed through coaching, playing with better players and being in a more expansive system. Take a player out of a deadlocked relegation battle, and you’ll naturally see more on-the-ball qualities come to the fore. From there, Slot should be able to deduce exactly how long Leoni will need before he can positively impact the senior side. — Tighe