Liverpool have been told that they have a young prospect in their ranks who has frightening speed. The Reds aren’t short of pace in forward areas this season.
Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz are bona fide road-runners, while Mohamed Salah has still got it, too.
But according to Derry City U19s manager Gerard Boyle, 17-year-old Trent Kone-Doherty may be the quickest of the lot. Speaking to the Liverpool ECHO today, Boyle has shared what he noticed about Kone-Doherty having managed the youngster before he joined Liverpool.
“Trent always possessed excellent close control and could manipulate the ball very well with both feet,” says the coach.
“He had incredible acceleration and deceleration. Trent enjoyed running at defenders with the ball and could glide by them before delivering a good pass or shooting.
“His attitude was first class, so well-manner and so receptive to receiving information and advice. He was like by all his teammates. He never stopped smiling.”
Liverpool youngster Kone-Doherty speeding through the ranks
Having taken a year to get settle into the U18 side, Kone-Doherty is now starting to catch the eye of the higher-ups at Liverpool.
First of all the young Irishman has been in and out of the U21s, where he’s score one goal in three Premier League 2 appearances this season.
Then, called up to first-team training by Jurgen Klopp.
Although that call-up hasn’t yet translated into a senior debut for Kone-Doherty, that doesn’t feel like something that’s all too far away now.
Given that they arrived at the same time and play similar positions, there’s a chance that Trent could find himself compared to Ben Doak.
But while the two do boast comparable speed, Kone-Doherty shouldn’t be burden by that. Doak is a year older than the Irishman and a year further ahead in his development.
A dream scenario would be to one day see Doak terrorising one full-back, while Kone-Doherty does the same on the other side.
We may see that in the future for Liverpool, we may not. But either way, it seems that young Trent will get his chance at some stage. Judging by the words of his former coach, we’d fully expect him to take it.
