Forget Julian Brandt or Christian Pulisic, go for Leon Bailey. He's the man.
Yeah, mentioned Bailey on here a few weeks ago. Phenomenal young talent. I've been watching him since his days at Racing Genk when he was 17-18. He has improved a lot in terms of workrate and character from what I've heard and seen. He had some issues while at Genk and his father (also still his agent I think) is supposedly an absolute c**t to deal with. Genk wasn't happy with his antics and the way he left.
Genk have an amazing scouting system and youth set up. You'd be surprised which players have been at Genk the past few years that are now at big clubs.
Short list: De Bruyne, Benteke, Courtois, Defour (Burnley), Bailey, Koulibaly (Napoli), Kabasele (Watford), Castagne (Atalanta), Ndidi (Leicester), Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio), ...
All of them have either come through the Genk youth set-up or were brought in at a young age. Could set up quite some team with those players.
Got my eye on one or two other ones there right now Malinovski and Sander Berge (huge talent, a #6/#8)
Yeah, Isn't he more of a striker? Very quick too I believe.
Not a striker at all. He can play both on the left and on the right and is pretty similar to both Mane and Salah in terms of skillset, while also having long range shooting ability (he has a sweeeeet left foot!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WShGRd-XPJkThis is him in the Belgian league at the age of 18, he has even improved a lot since going to Leverkusen. The Belgian league obviously isn't the strongest, but to do that at the ago of 18 in a physically pretty tough league, is quite good.
- He is pretty two footed, right or left, no problem
- Great awareness
- Can go outside, can cut in
- Can easily beat a man
- Great pace
- Good long range shooting
- ...
He would be the perfect stand in for both Mane and Salah. I wouldn't give it a second thought if we were in for him. He'd need to adapt of course, but he is a great player.
If Hirving Lozano keeps developing the way he is at PSV, I'd have both of them here in a heartbeat. We'd be set offensively for years.