Liverpool journalist Joel Rabinowitz thinks that Jürgen Klopp’s men should go after Wolves’ Pedro Neto this summer.
The 21-year-old Portuguese winger has taken something of a step forward this season at Molineux, already surpassing his numbers in both goals and assists from last season in the Premier League, as he’s doing his best to make up for some of the numbers that left the club when Diogo Jota made the move to Anfield last summer.
And speaking on the latest edition of the Blood Red podcast, Rabinowitz felt that Neto, valued at £31.5m on Transfermarkt, could make the same move this summer, noting that he could be the next man in line to replace one of the front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, who have somewhat struggled this season.
He said: “A player who I think is a definite upgrade on what [Xherdan] Shaqiri and [Divock] Origi currently provide but has also got masses of potential with the next kind of four or five years to be a long-term Liverpool player and go up and quite a few levels around better players. So that’s Pedro Neto from Wolves. I think there’s a huge amount of parallels with Jota.
“I think he’s played four or five different roles this season in a number of different systems. And I just think as a versatile, young option, he’s 21, so he’s at a perfect kind of age to make that next step in his career. He’s one that I think, with the kind of succession planning in mind, [be part of] replacing the front three.”
Would Neto be a good signing for Liverpool?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts on Joel Rabinowitz’s comments on Pedro Neto joining Liverpool…
Whilst Rabinowitz talks here about the possibility of Neto becoming someone to look to the future with, the hardest thing is going to be convincing him to come to a club where he isn’t going to be guaranteed to be getting as much game time as he is at Wolves.
Assuming the front three of Mane, Firmino and Salah retain their place as starters, and that after his showing this season, Jota is the next man up, that puts him as the fifth-choice forward for the foreseeable future at best.
And that just looks like a hard sell to make for someone to hold on for so long before they can get their chance to really shine in the first team.