The NEXT Roberto Firmino is coming to join Liverpool's first-team | OneFootball

The next Roberto Firmino is catching the eye for Liverpool's academy and ready to join the first-team.

Over the last decade or so the club has produced a lot of talented young players. But there has been a bit of a curse in the striker department.

Liverpool have had a lot of talented and prolific forwards at academy level. From Adam Morgan to Jerome Sinclair, or Oakley Cannonier, Layton Stewart and Paul Glatzel.

More recently Jayden Danns, who is still at Liverpool but who has been cursed with injuries that have prevented him from having a real breakthrough.

It's probably fair to say that not since Michael Owen or Robbie Fowler have Liverpool been able to produce a forward academy prospect who was able to become a key player for the first-team.

Well that could be coming to an end soon.

Liverpool's academy right now may be developing one of the most exciting young modern forwards in English football. A player who is perfectly equipped to step into the first-team and fit into Arne Slot's style of play.

Let us introduce you to Joshua Sonni-Lambie.

Still only 17-years-old, he is currently the top-scorer for the academy with 11 goals and four assists in 17 games.

Despite Liverpool's U18 and U21 side both struggling, Sonni-Lambie has been able to stand-out with goal contributions and eye catching moments in front of goal.

His latest cameo against adults in the EFL Trophy saw him dominate League Two side in Chesterfield and register a crucial assist for Kaide Gordon before forcing the keeper to make a mistake with his press that allowed Liverpool to score again, and tie the game level.

Sonni-Lambie's cameo completely changed the game for the young Reds, and it's confirmation that he is not far away from getting an opportunity at senior level.

There are other factors as well. Sonni-Lambie isn't your typical direct forward. He's a bit of everything. He works tirelessly off the ball and he's very good at pressing his opponents.

At the same time he thrives in link-up play, dropping back and getting other players involved. He's good at being unpredictable and making moves that catch defenders off-guard.

In a lot of sense his style of play is very similar to Roberto Firmino. He's got the flair, having grown up in London and playing a lot of grassroots football up until the age of 14, you can see he plays with freedom.

All in all, Sonni-Lambie may be the best striker the academy has produced since Alex Inglethorpe's era. If he keeps going it's inevitable he's going to join the first-team very soon.

And when he does, it's only up to him to determine how far he will go.