OPINION
Liverpool’s academy is packed to the brim with promising talents that it’s hard to keep an eye on them all but Adam Lewis is one particularly noteworthy youngster the club need to nurture.
The 18-year-old left-back is easily one of the best starlets at the club and so far in his young career his improvement has been rapid and exciting.
Lewis wowed in his 15 appearances in the Under-18s Premier League in the 2017/18 campaign, scoring three goals while registering nine assists in order to quickly find himself promoted to the Under-23s team.
The teen’s performances were so impressive that then youth manager Steven Gerrard gushed, to the club’s official website, about how he hadn’t witnessed anyone “as good as him at that age.”
While stepping up to the Under-23s should have been enough of challenge to really push his development, since making the progression, Lewis still looks comfortable in his team.
In the eight appearances he has made so far in the Premier League 2, the left-back has grabbed one goal and contributed two assists, even though on average he is playing with older players.
Two of these assists came in his last outing in the Premier League 2 against a usually capable Chelsea U-23s, who Lewis help tear apart to see his side win 5-1.
While it is very early days for his pledging career, it seems the Reds have no reason to hide this gem from the world and they need to loan him out to see how he handle’s senior football.
The Reds should aim to find a club as near by as possible, given his age, but he seems ready to experience the lower echelons of English football.
There are plenty of clubs in the lower-tier who could take on Lewis on a short-term basis, perhaps a three month loan spell, to evaluate what level he is truly at right now.
This move would prevent stagnation as given Gerrard’s 2017 comments this youngster clearly defies what he should be capable of or ready for at his age.
So with clubs up and down the country beginning to sort out their plans for the 2018/19 season, the Reds must act as soon as possible to see if there’s anywhere to test the waters with Lewis.
A loan move would take his development further forward and then he can return to show what he has learnt in the U-23s team before before assessed once again.
