ADAM LEWIS

AGE: 18 CLUB: LIVERPOOL POSITION: LEFT BACK VALUE: £2m

WHAT HAS HE GOT?

THIS bouncy 18-year-old from Liverpool breezed down the left side as a wing-back with genuine enthusiasm and drove to get into the final third. He has an educated left foot, a big advantage when he got into advanced positions and could select a pass or cross without changing feet. I like the way he kept his position and appeared to understand the importance of early combination play once he had received the ball from his left centre back of three. That centre back was actually rightfooted in a recent game so Lewis gained a constant supply of ball in deep unopposed areas. He gets his head up early and plays in-field with purposeful passes that carry a nice zip. Energy is not a problem and he put in a couple of excellent, teasing, curved crosses which gave his striker two chances at the back post. When his team won a free-kick on the right side 40 yards from goal, he strode over, took responsibility and delivered a dangerous in-swinger.

WHAT DOES HE NEED?

I WOULD need to see more responsibility when defending. When a ball was played behind him and his left centre back came out to cover accompanied by the opposing front man, I felt Lewis needed to be more urgent in his recovery run on a line towards his near post. There is a tendency for young wing-backs to work less on the defensive side of their game. But overall Lewis played very confidently. In the final third his awareness gave him an opportunity to see a gap and burst through it inside two defenders and hit a stinging right-foot shot. It was his attitude and attacking instincts that impressed me. I would probably need to see some advancement, particularly defensively, but here there was much promise to admire.