Liverpool should be keeping an eye on Norwich City centre-back Andrew Omobamidele when the two sides square off in the Carabao Cup tonight.
The Reds take on the Canaries for the second time this season in their League Cup opener at Carrow Road.
Liverpool picked up a 3-0 win at the same venue on the opening day of the Premier League season, so will be confident of getting through to the next round with a win tonight.
However, it will not be that simple. Jurgen Klopp is likely to make numerous changes to his XI for the game.
Daniel Farke could make a few changes to his team too. They have not exactly had a good start to the season, but they did see off Bournemouth on an impressive scoreline of 6-0 in the second round of the League Cup.
So, we expect many of those players to start this game as well.
Liverpool fans could have an interest in watching Ozan Kabak at the heart of the defence, but we reckon that they should be keeping an eye on his fellow central defender, 19-year-old Omobamidele.
Omobamidele has Liverpool potential
Omobamidele is the latest of numerous promising youngsters to come out of Norwich’s academy. He follows the likes of Max Aarons and Todd Cantwell in that regard.
Yet we think that Omobamidele could turn out to be the best player of the lot.
The Irishman made his Premier League debut against Arsenal earlier this month. He impressed in the 1-0 win for the Gunners.
This came after he made nine starts in the Championship last season, becoming a regular towards the end of the season.
He was even rewarded with a full Ireland debut in the last international break.
He earned rave reviews when he came on for the injured Dara O’Shea after 35 minutes to make his debut against one of the world’s top teams in Portugal.
This earned him a start against Serbia in the next game, where he was even more impressive.
While the Kildare native has superb pace and power, it is his reading of the game that impresses us most. It is incredibly rare to see a teenager perform like he does in that position at such a high level.
Crucially, it looks like he is going to get a fair bit of game time this season. Getting so many minutes in at such a young age is huge for a player’s development.
He only turned 19 in June, so was born in 2002, which sounds quite mad, to be frank. This means that he is three years younger than Ibrahima Konate and five years younger than Joe Gomez.
So, there could be an opening in the Liverpool squad for a centre-back in that age bracket.
We reckon that he will get a start, so let’s see if he impresses Klopp and co. live and in the flesh.