Everything you NEED to know about Noah Adekoya as Liverpool complete transfer

Here's everything you need to know about Noah Adekoya as Liverpool complete a deal for the young centre-back.

The 19-year-old centre-back took to his Instagram account to share pictures of him completing his move to Anfield.

Adekoya joins from Burnley and is believed to be extremely highly rated. He has participated in Nigeria's U20 international squad and it's not the first time he spent time at Liverpool either.

Adekoya had a trial at the club when he was younger and was unable to join due to injury. He is from Liverpool so this is a bit of a serendipitous moment for him.

It is expected that he will join the club's U21 side, where he could replace Amara Nallo or Wellity Lucky, who are expected to go out on loan in January.

But just what kind of player are Liverpool getting and what should fans expect of him?

Adekoya is a very tall (193cm) centre-back. The aspect of his game that stands-out immediately is his composure on the ball and his speed.

In possession he has excellent technical ability for a centre-back. He is a good carrier of the ball. Comfortable at carrying and passing the ball with both feet. In the 28 games available on Wyscout he attempted 27 dribbles for Burnley’s academy sides over the last two seasons and completed 24 of his attempts. This came out to an average of 1 dribble per 90 minutes and a completion rate of over 88%.

Because of his ability to use both feet comfortably, he can play as a right-sided and left-sided centre-back. He’s got long legs and is quite slim but muscular with a strong core, and as we mentioned above he’s quick so he deals well with physical challenges.

To illustrate, he won 74% of his 5.3 defensive duels per 90 and 78% of his 4.45 aerial duels per 90 for Burnley at youth level.

The only question mark is about his distribution of the ball. Burnley tend to play quite a direct style of football and do not keep a lot of possession, so he goes long often. He’s effective at doing this and has a nice range, but the sample size of him playing neater/line-breaking passes on the ground is a lot smaller. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops at Liverpool.

Overall, Adekoya looks like a talented player. Someone who could turn out to be a gem.

He captained Burnley at U18 level and is well-liked by Nigeria's international set-up.

There are parallels to be drawn with Nat Phillips, who joined the U21s at a similar age from Bolton and went onto play 29 games for Liverpool's first-team.

Adekoya spent an extended trial period at the club before joining the Reds. So, the club's academy coaches have had a good look at him, and must trust him to succeed.

Like Philipps, he won't be just coming in to make-up the numbers. Liverpool will have high hopes about how far he can go.

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