Henrikh Mkhitaryan would be a perfect fit for Liverpool and Liverpool would be a perfect fit for the Armenia international, football writer Graham Ruthven says in an article, published on Yahoo Sport UK.

Mkhitaryan started the season successfully, he laid on five assists in Manchester United’s first three games of the campaign, indicating to many that he had finally found his role in Jose Mourinho’s team. It was a false dawn. Five months later, Mkhitaryan has been ostracised at Old Trafford with Mourinho reportedly keen to move the playmaker on this month.

“Now, the Armenian is a shell of his former self. Whoever takes him on next will face a rebuilding job to get the playmaker back to what he was not so long ago. Nobody would do a better job of that than Jurgen Klopp,” the article says.

“It was Klopp who took Mkhitaryan to Dortmund, establishing the Armenian as one of the finest talents in the European game. It was Klopp who moved the Armenian into a more central position, getting the best out of his inherent creativity. And it’s Klopp who, following the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona, is in need of a playmaker.”

Ruthven believes, however, that even in their desperation to get rid of the 28-year-old that Man Utd would sell to Liverpool, such is the rivalry between the two clubs.

“But there can be no denying that, ignoring all that would likely scupper a move, Mkhitaryan would be a perfect fit for Liverpool and Liverpool would be a perfect fit for Mkhitaryan. Klopp, as a character, is an altogether different sort of manager to Mourinho, the kind that the playmaker tends to thrive under,” Ruthven says.