Why the Liverpool player who stood out in Andoni Iraola’s first game can’t play in the Premier League right now
Liverpool kicked off their pre-season with an exciting 4-2 win over Sunderland in Nashville. One player stood out, but unfortunately, he can’t play in the Premier League this season.
For the first time since arriving at Anfield, manager Andoni Iraola got to see his team face a strong opponent, and he must have been happy with many of them. Harvey Elliott returned to action after a tough loan at Aston Villa and helped set up youngster Kieran Morrison for the first goal. Later, Dominik Szoboszlai came off the bench and scored a powerful strike, followed by goals from Federico Chiesa and Lewis Koumas.
The great attacking play was slightly spoiled by an early injury to Joe Gomez, who had to leave the game and will have scans to check the damage. This injury shows that Liverpool really needs more defenders. Virgil van Dijk is currently on holiday after the World Cup, Giovanni Leoni is still recovering from an ACL injury, and new signing Jeremy Jacquet didn’t play in the first game as a safety measure.
Iraola called Gomez’s injury the “worst news” after the match and had to rely on some young players. One of them, Ifeanyi Ndukwe, who joined the club in January for £2.5 million from Austria Vienna, came on to replace Gomez. Ndukwe and fellow 18-year-old Mor Talla Ndiaye formed a new defensive pair. Ndukwe did a great job on the field and is well thought of inside the club.
However, Ndukwe can’t fix Liverpool’s current defense problems yet, not just because he’s young and inexperienced, but also because he doesn’t qualify to play in the Premier League right now. According to The Athletic’s James Pearce, Iraola won’t be able to use Ndukwe this season because he doesn’t meet the points required for a UK work permit.
The Premier League requires overseas players to have a Governing Body Endorsement (GBE), which acts like a work permit and depends on a points system. So, it looks like Ndukwe will be loaned out to get regular first-team experience somewhere else for now. Pearce confirmed that the club plans to loan him out, but they clearly see a bright future for him once he gets his work permit.
Before joining Liverpool, Ndukwe made one senior appearance for Austria Vienna. It was his strong performances at the U17 World Cup in Qatar that really caught Liverpool’s eye. His Austria U17 coach, Hermann Stadley, said last year, “He has made the biggest leap of all, playing regularly in the U21s and standing out because of his height and hairstyle. He’s very advanced for his age.”
Ndukwe’s future in football looks very promising, and his performance against Sunderland was just a small peek at his real potential.