Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has been advised by club legend Robbie Fowler to sign Aston Villa star Ollie Watkins this summer.
The 25-year-old has bagged 15 goals this season, with 13 coming in the Premier League, after signing from Championship side Brentford.
Fowler thinks Liverpool are lacking a player with the skillset of Watkins, suggesting the Reds would do well to consider bringing Watkins to Anfield this summer.
“The top level, it’s mostly in the mind,” he wrote in his column for the Mirror. “The belief in your process if you like. Keep doing the right things, keep making the right runs, keep believing that if you miss a chance, another will come, and you’ll have the clarity and calm to convert it.
“I look at Liverpool’s forward line at the moment, one that was the best in the world a year ago, and they don’t have that clarity, they are so obviously fogged up by missed chances…so it can happen to the very, very best of us.
“The top players though, they come through it, because they have the mental strength and self belief. It’s what gets them to the top. Which is why I liked what Ollie Watkins’ manager said about him so much.
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“Interestingly, Jurgen Klopp absolutely sang his praises a few weeks ago, and you can definitely see someone with his pressing ability – and the stats to go with it – doing well under that sort of manager.
“And believe me, clubs like City and Liverpool with their massive analytics departments will have run those stats many times already.”
There is no doubt Liverpool have lacked goals at times this season, and Watkins has a knack for finding the back of the net.
Whether the 25-year-old has what it takes to jump from the expectations of a Villa player to a striker leading the line for a side competing for domestic and continental titles remains to be seen.
Watkins’ transition from a top-class Championship forward to a decent Premier League striker is impressive, so he’s got form on it.
Let Watkins go. It might make Dean Smith think about other options. Or keep Watkins and get rid of Smith and mines.