Liverpool have not been at the races this season, falling from their pedestal at the forefront of domestic and continental football and now struggling to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Indeed, Jurgen Klopp’s Reds languish in fifth in the Premier League, six points adrift from fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, and fell in the early stages of both the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup.
And with Anfield receiving a 5-2 drubbing at the hand of Real Madrid in this term’s Champions League round-of-16 first leg, the Merseyside outfit’s German manager has his work cut out to reinstate the cohesion and intensity that has waned over the duration of the campaign.
Every department of the field has been affected, and while offensive seasonal signings Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo, landed for £85m and £35m respectively, have tantalised promise of success, the attacking line has not been what it once was, especially given the £35m departure of prolific stalwart Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich.
And with recent news that Klopp favourite Roberto Firmino will depart from Anfield at the end of his contract, further concerns have consequently risen.
Firmino has made 355 appearances for the Reds, scoring 108 goals and supplying 79 assists, integral in the club’s ascension and subsequent clinching of a wealth of major honours including the Premier League and Champions League, also scoring ten goals and providing five assists from just 16 starts this season.
Thus, attention will turn to who can replace him with Lewis Koumas potentially one prodigy set to benefit.
Who is Lewis Koumas?
With such burning requirement for reinforcements at Liverpool, spending a lucrative fee on a replacement for the 31-year-old Firmino might not be the most prudent move, given the offensive ranks at the club boast the likes of Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota as well as the aforementioned Nunez and Gakpo.
That’s why academy prospect Koumas – son of former Premier League player Jason Koumas – deserves a shot at ascending to the first-team fold, having impressed for the club’s academy.
“He’s a good footballer. He’s very good at running without the ball, he is very good at running forwards. His movement and timing is excellent – and he likes to finish,” Liverpool coach Marc Bridge-Wilkinson once described of the prodigy to The Athletic.
The 17-year-old possesses an innate striking instinct, having scored seven goals and provided three assists from just six matches in the U18 Premier League this season, also scoring twice from as many games in the UEFA Youth League.
Also speaking to The Athletic, Koumas’ former youth coach Danny Hart stated: “He played like a 16-year-old when he was 10. It was just bizarre, the quality he had. From that first trial alone he was just unreal. He was like the driver and the engine. You could play him wherever you needed to.
“He was such an athlete, which helped, and he was so switched on tactically. You could give him the ball and he knew what to do with it. All of the players looked up to him.”
Praised by Andy Kelly for one performance where he “worked his socks off”, Koumas certainly boasts the cutting edge and work-rate to replace Firmino and eventually earn a place in Klopp’s system over the coming years, giving the copious ranks up front for the senior side, investing in youth and providing the exciting talent with the platform to make a mark could unearth the next club’s next star.