Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is battling to agree terms with Schalke for defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos.

The Guardian says Rodgers is willing to pay £12m for his first-choice central defender Papadopoulos and is also keen on Tiago Ilori, of Sporting Lisbon.

But Schalke are insisting on closer to £20m for Papadopoulos, who missed the final months of the Bundesliga season with a knee injury, and Liverpool are reluctant to be dragged into an auction for the Greek.