Premier League 2019-20: 5 young stars who could benefit from a January loan move

#4 Rhian Brewster

Rhian Brewster needs to get minutes under his belt following his serious knee injury

Despite Jurgen Klopp apparently rating him highly, it was always going to be difficult for England U-21 striker Rhian Brewster to find game time at Liverpool in 2019/20. After all, Liverpool have one of the most potent attacking trios in the football world right now in the form of Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane – and if any of the three are unavailable, Divock Origi seems to be a perfectly able deputy.

Brewster is just 19 years old so usually a lack of minutes due to the form of his more illustrious teammates wouldn’t be such a huge deal, but the problem is that when the striker has been deployed – he’s started in both of Liverpool’s EFL Cup matches thus far – he’s looked largely rusty and off the pace, and hasn’t been able to find the net despite the Reds scoring 7 goals across both games.

What’s the reason for this, when fellow youngsters Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott have looked so impressive? Most likely it comes back to the fact that Brewster missed practically a year of football – from the start of 2018 through to the first half of 2019 – with a serious ankle and knee injury. If he’s looked rusty this season, it’s probably because he is rusty.

That means that while the striker’s future is probably still going to be bright at Anfield, he desperately needs game time to get back up to pace and regain the confidence that he displayed when he scored 8 goals to win the Golden Boot in the 2017 U-17 World Cup.

Due to his lack of experience at senior level, it seems like a move to an EFL Championship side would probably serve him best; he’d be able to develop the more physical side to his game against tough opponents while hopefully getting some valuable minutes under his belt. Any side in that league would be lucky to have a striker with such potential – if only for five months.