EPL 2017/18: 5 players who could become household names

#4 Dominic Solanke

Dominic Solanke has had a fantastic pre-season at Liverpool

Chelsea’s loss could well turn out to be Liverpool’s gain when it comes to young striker Dominic Solanke. Despite performing tremendously for Chelsea’s youth sides and also for Vitesse during his loan stint in Holland, the striker was always going to struggle for game time given the Blues’ distrust of their academy players when it comes to first team opportunities.

So with his contract up in the summer, Solanke moved to Liverpool for a fee still to be determined. Of course, this was prior to his star performances for England’s under-20 side as they won the U-20 World Cup in South Korea.

Solanke was awarded the Golden Ball in South Korea after scoring four goals – including a ludicrously cool penalty against Argentina – and he’s kept up his scoring touch for Liverpool in pre-season, hitting three goals thus far.

Only Mohamed Salah has scored more goals for the Reds this summer, and that’s thrown a wrench into Jurgen Klopp’s idea of keeping Solanke as more of a long-term project. With Daniel Sturridge injured again, the 19-year-old could find himself in the first team quicker than Klopp initially thought.

With Liverpool’s history of producing exciting young strikers – Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler instantly come to mind alongside Sturridge – Solanke could well join those names with a good debut season in 2017/18. Even an England call-up might not be out of the realm of possibility given Gareth Southgate’s penchant for youth. And surely Chelsea would then regret letting him walk away.