Marcos the Senesible Signing
Liverpool are said to be interested in acquiring Bournemouth centre-back Marcos Senesi. Whether they truly are or not, he should be on their shortlist.
The BBC transfer gossip page led with a tidbit concerning the Reds on Thursday morning.
“Liverpool are leading the race for 28-year-old Bournemouth and Argentina defender Marcos Senesi, who is out of contract this summer” (i paper)
This feels plausible (although The Athletic reported on Friday that the player is in talks with Tottenham, subject to them staying up). Senesi is battle-hardened to English football with over 100 Premier League appearances, not that the Argentinian equivalent in which he cut his teeth will have been a cake walk. He is well-known to sporting director Richard Hughes, who signed him for Bournemouth, and best of all, he won’t carry a transfer fee.
The idea of a move to Liverpool passes the eye test by these benchmarks. Does Senesi?
His availability record is decent. The four months missed with a hamstring injury last season represent the only reported absence that has cost him more than six matches (per Transfermarkt).
From the perspective of picturing him at Liverpool, it’s a pity the Argentine international missed a chunk of 2024/25. Bournemouth’s win rate was 54 per cent in the 13 matches in which both Milos Kerkez and Senesi started last season, compared with 33 per cent when either or both were not in the XI.
More importantly, the Cherries saw the xG they allowed drop by 0.32 per game in the Premier League when the duo comprised the left half of Andoni Iraola’s starting back four. They appear to work well together.
He also knows Alexis Mac Allister, alongside whom all three of Senesi’s international caps have been earned. The matches were won too; take that, Estonia, Mauritania and Venezuela, the trio swept aside.
Most significantly in terms of relationships, Senesi made 49 appearances for Arne Slot at Feyenoord. If the news that the club continues to back the under-fire Dutchman is accurate, the pair could be reunited in 2026/27.
Despite rarely spending time in the treatment room, the potential Liverpool target hasn’t played too much football. It’s something that would possibly be a concern when picking up a player who will have just turned 29.
However, Senesi has logged 260 per 90s in the FBRef database, 286.4 with Transfermarkt (as they have more data for South American football). Even the higher number is over 9,000 club minutes fewer than Jamie Carragher had played at the end of his age 28 season, before we get to the likes of Rio Ferdinand (418.4 per 90s), Sergio Ramos (425.8) or Harry Maguire (427.4).
Senesi has roughly 1,750 minutes of experience in European competition; Willian Pacho may get within about 200 of that this season alone. The Bournemouth man is not old in football for his age.
The Transfer Flow recently described Senesi as “the best passing center back in the Premier League this year,” also noting that: “Bournemouth’s attack starts with the line-breaking passes and long balls of Marcos Senesi, who’s also farming defensive action stats thanks to their style of play.”
The boy truly can pass. Senesi has played as many through-balls as Florian Wirtz in the league this season for gawd’s sake (10). He has four assists in the competition this season, half of which came in open play. Do you know the most league assists by any Liverpool player if we exclude set pieces?
Three.
The Argentine set up a winner at Tottenham as well as equalisers in the last 10 minutes (against West Ham) and stoppage time (Leeds). Oh, and another goal against Spurs because everybody else is doing it, so why can’t he? A couple of his assist passes have been utterly delightful, the kind of line-breaking defence-splitters that Liverpool have lacked all season.
Here’s an example in north London:
Another, in a home game with the Hammers:
The latter was one of the six Opta-defined big chances the 28-year-old has set up this season. That would put him fourth in the Liverpool standings, plus he’s level with the likes of João Pedro, Iliman Ndiaye and former teammate Antoine Semenyo.
This helps explain why Senesi is second in the league for Statsbomb’s On-Ball Value (OBV) metric this term. That’s seriously impressive for a centre-back.
He’s ranked sixth for the passing element. A standing of 15th among defenders for dribbles and carries is decent going when many of the men above him are full-backs, wing-backs or essentially midfielders. Jan Paul van Hecke (on 3.34) and our old friend/nemesis Marc Guéhi (2.78) are the only central defenders who’ve offered more OBV in this sense than Senesi (2.31).
And nobody in any position is ahead of him on the defensive action side of the metric. This won’t be a surprise to Fantasy Premier League enthusiasts, who are likely aware that Senesi has amassed the most defensive contribution points in the game this season. Whatever this may or may not prove, it shows he will defend when defending needs to be done. The present iteration of Liverpool could benefit from a dose of this outlook at times.
The Reds’ potential transfer target is not too prone to making costly mistakes either. By Opta’s definition Senesi has made five defensive errors that led to shots in four seasons in the Premier League. James Tarkowski has made seven in 2025/26 alone.
So far, so good. We’d better consider the downsides.
The number that stands out furthest is Senesi’s poor record with aerial duels. He has the worst win rate among the 30 defenders who’ve contested at least 100 this season. There may be context which makes this look better - as I found for Guéhi - but it’s a concern on the raw numbers alone.
Senesi has also lost possession 16.3 times per 90 minutes this season according to Football Critic, the highest average among defenders with at least 500 minutes on their ledger. The same source reveals his rate has gone from 10.4 through 12.7 onto 14.8 and now at a new peak with each passing season.
To some extent it’s the cost of doing business when you’re a centre-back playing through-balls in the final third. The groans of the Anfield faithful will be louder and angrier than their counterparts at the Vitality offer at the sight of wasted passes though.
His long passing is the best way to frame this. Senesi has completed 155 long balls in 2025/26, the most of any outfielder in the Premier League. That sounds great for a Liverpool team that is missing Trent Alexander-Arnold’s ability.
But Senesi tops the standings for delivering unsuccessful long balls too. The additional 26 long passes he has completed over Virgil van Dijk have come at the cost of an additional 117 that went astray. As much as this is a consequence of the Cherries’ direct tactical style which is unlikely to be fully repeated at Liverpool, the Reds’ structure would need greater solidity to guard against what happens after the long balls that turn over possession.
One other red (and yellow) flag is the question of discipline. Senesi was joint-top of the Premier League in 2023/24 for yellow cards, with 13. Equally, he has ‘only’ collected as many in the two seasons since. Iraola’s high-intensity, high-press style will inevitably lead to tactical fouls on occasion.
No player is perfect. What is telling in terms of the Reds’ potential interest is that this defender has been showing up favourably in the data for years.
Opta Analyst were talking Senesi up as far back as the 2020/21 season. It would be a textbook Liverpool tactic to pick up on his strengths, allow him to gain his Premier League legs on someone else’s pitch before making a move. Whether they do or not, it’s easy to see why Macca’s international teammate would be on their shortlist.
Any Senesi fans here? Undoubtedly pros and cons...
He's come to my attention via fantasy football as he does gave good offensive metrics for a centre back. Could be a shrewd buy but we would need to mitigate his aerial weakness as we do increasingly seem to lack height in the squad (Wirtz, Frimpong, Macallister).