Wonderkid Ben can go all way to top at Kop
ROBBIE FOWLER says teenager Ben Woodburn has all the tools to make it to the top – but warned Liverpool fans they might not see much of him this season.
The Anfield legend admitted Woodburn’s debut goal in the EFL Cup against Leeds last week has whetted the appetite of everyone at the club.
And Fowler, having seen him rise through the age groups in the academy structure, has no doubt that he will forge a place in the first team in time.
Yet Fowler believes that, having introduced him to a wider audience, Reds manager Jurgen Klopp will now be keen to wrap him in cotton wool in order to slowly integrate him into the first-team set-up.
“I was excited to see Ben make his debut having watched him a lot – he is a very good player. You can’t argue with his credentials as he has scored goals at every level he has been at,” said Fowler.
“There is a long way to go but it really is in his hands now – he is a very talented player. In Jurgen Klopp, he is in good hands and he is playing for a manager who understands how players should be looked after. Klopp will play him and use him in the right way. And that means he will be sheltered a bit – and quite rightly so.”
Woodburn, 17, is already one beat ahead of Fowler, who was a year older when he made his own debut, and the former Liverpool striker believes the teenager might have had more goals against Leeds.
His historic strike made him Liverpool’s youngest-ever goalscorer, beating the record set by Michael Owen, but Fowler said: “I was watching
the game and I thought his movement was very good. Maybe he could have had a few more chances for more goals if his team-mates had made the right pass or seen him a bit earlier. “But he has played about 20 minutes of football [in the first team] and he has already got a goal.”
Such is Fowler’s enduring legend as one of the club’s finest – he is the sixth-highest goalscorer – there have been several youngsters unfairly saddled with the label of ‘the new Robbie Fowler’ since his retirement.
Fowler, 41, believes such comparisons are unhelpful for all that he accepts they will continue to be made.
“Yes, I scored a few but it is always the case that a player comes in and he is the new Ian Rush, the new Luis Suarez or the new Robbie Fowler. That is what football is like,” he said.
“Ben has had a great start but it is not about your start, it’s about what you do from here on. Good luck to him, there is a lot of support behind him.”
Fowler says Woodburn will not be the last to emerge from a decent talent pool in an academy structure that has also seen fellow teenagers Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ovie Ejaria break through into the first team this season.
“There has been a lot of attention on Ben because he is the latest to make his debut but there are a few very good players and plenty of kids coming through,” said Fowler.
“As Liverpool fans, we all would love to see these players but, as talented as they are, the step up from academy to first-team level is tremendously high. And getting that balance right is difficult. It takes time.”
ROBBIE FOWLER was speaking at the launch of The LFC Foundation’s Legends Charity match between his LFC Legends and Real Madrid Legends at Anfield on Saturday, March 25.
I’ve watched him a lot and I was excited to see his debut