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Liverpool should be in no rush to decide Rhian Brewster’s future.
There is a fervor around Brewster right now. The battle lines are drawn. The two courses are established: lend it from Premier League experience; keep it with the team, whether it’s in the role of Origi or as a foreign exchange agent outside the bank.
There is also a rush to decide that future right now. Saturday’s Community Shield against Arsenal has been heralded as a barometer of Brewster’s progress: Will Jurgen Klopp trust him in some kind of real match after an excellent preseason? If not, what does that mean? Will he go on loan to Sheffield United, will he return to the championship or to Scotland?
“I’m working hard and trying to impress,” Brewster said after his two goals off the bench against Salzburg. “It’s not about goals, it’s about running for the team.”
That’s the crux of the matter: Brewster is as naturally talented a scorer as you can imagine. Pick your comparisons, from Mason Greenwood to Robbie Fowler. He marks; but is he able to connect the required game of Liverpool’s number nine? And if not, will he be able to move into a substitute wide striker role (the roles that essentially function like a traditional forward) or can he work as a change in the last 20 minutes or so if Liverpool need a goal? And would you be happy with that role?
All of that is included in the loan equation. And people are quick to come to a conclusion: that I should fit into that role of Origi or that it would be better to play and play and play instead of having half an hour every four games.
But there should be no rush. Liverpool has time. The transfer window does not close until October 5. By then, Liverpool players will have been on international service twice and played in the League Cup twice. At that point, Liverpool can evaluate their season. Maybe there is a wound. Perhaps the under-23 team will click on the League Cup and there will be even more games packed into the winter slate.
(Interestingly, there are first two rounds of the League Cup and then the thing closes until December)
Keeping Brewster up to the deadline makes sense for the club in terms of use of its resources. If Liverpool suffers an injury or two in the first weeks of the season, they will need an additional squad to get through a year that will feature two games a week until February.
This season will be relentless. Liverpool will most likely be aiming for the League Cup, but it’s elements and energy (for the staff, if nothing else) that will build. Keeping Brewster the leading figure on that U23 team for at least those early rounds makes some sense.
There are arguments that can be made the other way around, of course. By moving Brewster to another club now, the forward would have a better chance of settling down, meeting his coaches and new teammates, learning the team’s style and accelerating his path to the first team. Although that didn’t seem to stop him in January, Brewster started early for Swansea (particularly led by his former England youth team coach) and scored 10 goals in 20 games.
Brewster has a bright future, but Liverpool shouldn’t be in a rush to decide what to do with the player right now. They should use the quirk of this year’s transfer window to sit back and wait, to assess where the team is. after the first rounds of cup competitions and international tournaments, and then find out whether it makes more sense for Brewster to stay with the first team or if he should be loaned out or not.
“It’s not decided yet,” Klopp said Friday. “No hurry.”
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