Liverpool journalist Matt Addison has been sharing his thoughts on Reds defender Billy Koumetio and his future at the Merseyside club.
This comes after Addison recently made an appearance on the Liverpool Echo’s Blood Red Podcast to discuss the latest news topics surrounding Jurgen Klopp’s side.
On the subject of Koumetio, who made an appearance in the second half of Liverpool’s pre-season victory over VfB Stuttgart at the weekend, Addison shared his thoughts on how the defender fared against the Bundesliga club and his future at Anfield.
He said: “I think it’s probably still a little bit too soon for Billy Koumetio, but certainly lots of Liverpool fans were rightly impressed with him over the weekend. I thought he slotted in really well when he came on, he wasn’t on for the full half, was he? He only played about half of that half replacing Sepp van den Berg, but yeah, he’s an exciting player.
“He’s been at Liverpool for about 18 months or so now. He came in at the beginning of 2019, played for Lyon earlier in his career, played as a winger and I think you could sort of see that a little bit obviously with some of his passing from centre-back, I think he’s a really interesting and exciting option for Liverpool going forward, but yeah, all I would say is, [he’s] still only 17, so as much as he looks like the finished product physically, there’s still a lot of development for him to do.”
As Addison mentioned in the podcast, Liverpool signed Koumetio back in 2019 from US Orleans U19s on a free transfer after the player had made his way through the youth system at Olympique Lyon (per Transfermarkt).
Since he arrived at the Merseyside club, Koumetio has made eight appearances for the Liverpool U18 team, one for the Liverpool U23 team and one for the Liverpool UEFA U19 team.
The 17-year-old has yet to make an official senior appearance for the Reds’ first-team.
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With Koumetio getting a taste of first-team football in the short period he played in the Reds’ pre-season win against Stuttgart, this would have been a good opportunity for the teenager to show what he is capable of in Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Heading into the 2020/21 season, it will be interesting to see if Klopp decides to give Koumetio his official senior debut for the Reds at any point during the season.
From what Addison had to say in the podcast, he feels as though Koumetio still has a way to go before he makes his mark in the first-team though.