Romeo Lavia had a great preseason, perhaps unsurprisingly.
He was shut down for the season midway through the spring earlier this year, and so essentially his preseason began months before everyone else. He was able to build up gradually while everyone else was worn out and plenty of his colleagues were playing at the Euros or the Copa America.
By the time our friendlies came around, he was in peak condition and others were still building up speed. He looked great in those games and to start the season. But injuries soon struck, and by the end of August he was out, ultimately missing a full month.
He’s returned in a slightly awkward situation. The team coped without him, and got some great results with Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo in the middle. Clearly Enzo Maresca doesn’t want to disrupt that.
But it leaves Lavia stuck in the cracks between the A team and the B team. After playing 11 minutes against Brighton as a sub 10 days ago, he didn’t feature for the B team against Gent OR the A team against Nottingham Forest.
Maresca clearly wants to keep him fresh, but isn’t quite sure if he wants to start stacking minutes on the Belgian in the cup games with the other squad players.
Maresca faces big call over dropping midfielder in to tough game
Our game at Anfield should be a great chance for Lavia to get back into the first team, given Fernandez and Caicedo will both come back late and tired from international games in South America.
But will Maresca consider Lavia physically up to being dropped into such an intense game after just 83 total minutes of competitive action all season? It would be a big ask. We will learn a lot about the manager’s thinking when that game rolls around.
