Jordon Ibe made an immediate impact on the majority of Liverpool fans after breaking into our first-team earlier this season, producing a highly impressive performance in the Merseyside derby stalemate against Everton.
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His progress was cruelly restricted by an injury sustained against Besiktas in the Europa League, something he only returned from last week following two months on the sidelines.
Now, as the 20-year-old prepares to play a major role in our final six Premier League fixtures of the campaign, he’s openly targeting a regular role in Brendan Rodgers’ side for next season.
In quotes from Liverpool’s official website, he said: “It’s really important to get into the gaffer’s mind of who could be in the starting XI for the first Premier League game, and just do well [in pre-season] and keep your fitness up.”
With that in mind, we’ve taken a stab at predicting our starting line-up for the first game of next season. For the sake of avoiding speculation, we’ve avoided including any potential summer signings.
GK) Simon Mignolet
Any questions regarding the Belgian’s future have surely been eradicated by his wonderful run of form since the turn of the year. His performances thus far in 2015 have come in stark contrast to those he produced in late 2014.
RB) Jon Flanagan
With the Daily Star questioning the futures of both Glen Johnson and Javi Manquillo, we’ve gone for a surprise candidate at full-back. Flanagan should return from injury soon and will have a full pre-season to prepare.
LB) Alberto Moreno
The Spaniard has made some mistakes this season but has still shown more than enough to suggest that he could be the answer to our ongoing troubles at left-back. He’s young and a Spanish international. Needs at least one more season.
CB) Martin Skrtel
Skrtel has proven himself to be the leader in chief at the back this season and we can see no reason for that to change during the summer. The Slovakian has been passionate and committed for the Reds and deserves respect.
CB) Mamadou Sakho
We had to put Sakho in ahead of Dejan Lovren, with the looming prospect of the Croatian falling out of favour yet again. The Frenchman was a big miss against Villa last weekend and still has room to continue improving.
DM) Emre Can
He’s spent most of this season playing in defence. We’ve bumped him up to his more natural midfield position, where his bursting runs forward could be more valuable, as well as less dangerous to his fellow defenders. In all likelihood though, a marquee Steven Gerrard replacement signing will demand a midfield spot.
CM) Jordan Henderson
The likely new Liverpool captain following the departure of Steven Gerrard. He’d be expected to continue his box-to-box role, helping cover Can when he goes forward, while still pushing up and allowing room for Coutinho to work.
CM) Philippe Coutinho
A slightly unnatural position for the Brazilian when you take into account where he’s been playing this season. However, we can’t help but feel that he needs to be the heartbeat of this Liverpool team, making things happen in the middle. When we played a diamond in 2013/14, he did play as part of a deeper midfield trio often, and did so with aplomb.
RW) Jordon Ibe
Ibe can interchange flanks with Sterling in a dynamic front-tree. That’s probably his, and his elder teammate’s best positions. Ibe’s pace and power is potentially devastating. Let’s hope he’s utilised properly.
LW) Raheem Sterling
Assuming he stays, Sterling can still prove to be an invaluable asset. He’s spent too much time this season playing out of position. He needs to be given a licence to cut in from the left and bamboozle a fullback. We’d like Sterling’s role to be freer though, with permission to drift centrally and pick up possession and drive towards opposition back-lines.
ST) Daniel Sturridge
We’ve kept faith with Sturridge as the pinpoint of the attack, at least in the hope that we can keep him fit next season. He’s comfortably the best finisher in this Liverpool team and with the right support can get 20 plus goals.
