Aston Villa could be offered Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as part of Liverpool's efforts to sign Douglas Luiz, according to Calciomercato.

The lowdown

The Brazil midfielder is very much a wanted man as he nears the end of his contract next June. Arsenal made three bids to sign him on Deadline Day, the last of which was worth £25m, but Villa turned them down and denied him the move.

As such, the January transfer window might well represent their final opportunity to sell him before he can leave on a free.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is a player in whom the Villans already shown an interest, as per a report from The Mirror's John Cross.

The latest

According to Calciomercato, Liverpool want to reinforce their midfield and have identified Luiz as their 'main target'.

They are not the only club in the hunt for the Brazilian, with the Serie A trio of Roma, Milan and Juventus all interested as well.

Crucially, though, the Reds may have an 'ace up their sleeve' in the form of Oxlade-Chamberlain, a player who 'Gerrard likes'. The 29-year-old could 'enter the negotiation' and move in the opposite direction to Luiz.

The verdict

According to Transfermarkt's estimations, Luiz is the second most valuable asset in the Villa squad at £34.2m, so it would seem like very poor business to let him leave without gaining anything in return.

Gerrard is a fan of Oxlade-Chamberlain and may feel as if he can revive a career which is stalling at Anfield, with the former Arsenal man left out in the cold during last season's run-in.

The admiration would certainly appear to be mutual based on comments from the 29-year-old in 2017, when he said that he had 'always wanted to be Steven Gerrard'.

Ranking in the top 10 percentiles among positional peers in the big five European leagues for non-penalty goals, non-penalty xG, progressive carries, dribbles completed and progressive passes received, he is similar in stylistic profile to the likes of Jude Bellingham, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva (via FBRef).

The £120,000-per-week midfielder, who has won the Premier League and Champions League among other tropgies at Anfield, has been called 'spectacular' and 'outstanding' by Jurgen Klopp, and he could be well worth exploring as a possible makeweight if Villa are left with no choice but to part with Luiz.