OPINION
Liverpool have made a brilliant decision by offering defender Conor Masterson a new contract but they now need to decide how to best get him senior football in the 2018/19 season.
It was confirmed by the Reds, via their retained list on the club’s official website, that the 19-year-old centre-back had been offered a new contract in order to keep him at Anfield.
Masterson is one of the club’s most promising talents and it was fantastic, if an obvious, decision to give him a new deal in order to ensure his huge talent remained at the club.
The teenage enforcer managed to make 18 appearances for the Reds’ U-23s in his latest campaign and wowed so much that he found himself as an unused substitute for the senior’s side games against Manchester City, in the Champions League, and Everton, in the Premier League.
While Jurgen Klopp opted to not unleash the flourishing talent in those games, it showed how close he was to getting a first-team opportunity.
However it’s very important that Masterson tastes senior football sooner rather than later as he looks ready to take that step forward in his career and the club won’t want his progress to stagnate.
The teenager, who is comfortable with the ball at his feet unlike some defenders, could easily be a bit part player at the Reds but as Klopp’s side have their sights firmly on competing for the league title, regular senior football seems off the cards at Anfield at this stage.
This means that Reds need to make a huge decision regarding what to do with Masterson this summer as they need to keep the ball rolling with his promising development.
Therefore it seems like the brilliant choice to follow up on the club offering him a new deal would be to loan him out to a side where he will get regular football and learn an important lesson or two in the process.
Given the toughness of the Championship, it seems the Reds should look to see how their talented young centre-back is able to cope in England’s second-tier and there will no doubt be a host of clubs willing to take him on.
So this means that after the club confirmed that it had brilliantly decided to hand the enforcer a new deal, the Reds need to make yet another great decision by sanctioning a loan exit for their talent.
