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For a number of Liverpool's loanees, the season away will provide an opportunity for regular playing and a chance to make a case that they're deserving of a future at Anfield. Iago Aspas has already sealed some sort of deal to move to Sevilla on a permanent basis, but each of Andre Wisdom, Luis Alberto, Tiago Ilori, Brad Smith, and Joao Teixeira are hoping to make enough of an impact at their temporary homes that they will, in turn, work their way into Brendan Rodgers' plans longer-term.
Teixeira's started the brightest of that group, featuring on three occasions for Brighton & Hove Albion and scoring twice along the way. He's also added an assist for the Seagulls, who are hopeful of making another push for promotion after narrowly missing out last season. Losses in their first two left them off the pace, but wins against Leeds and Bolton--with Teixeira goals in each--have them back on track ahead of a trip to Swindon Town (Brad Smith's home for the season) midweek in the League Cup.
Yesterday's was a performance that left manager Sami Hyypia pleased, and the former Liverpool defender was quick to highlight the Teixeira's qualities while also noting the opportunity that's been afforded to the Portuguese during his time at Brighton:
"He's good on the ball, a good football player, an intelligent player that can score goals. I hope he takes the advantage to play for us, normally loan deals work both ways that we give him the opportunity to play at this level.
"I think our style of play suits him as well. From our point of view we can have a very good player on our side. He has a good mentality, is training well and we can push him to improve himself. We need quality from the other players so that we can get him on the ball in dangerous areas and he can score goals. I think when we can get him on the ball around the box and he will be dangerous there."
For Teixeira the challenge will be two-fold--first, he's challenged with sustaining effort and impact over the course of a full professional season, something he's never been tasked with before. Then, once he's come out the other side, hopefully healthy and having experienced consistent success, he'll have to break into a Liverpool squad that's loaded with the attributes Hyypia mentions.
Good players will always been needed, but now looks an especially difficult time for a player like Joao Teixeira to break through and of all the qualities he has, patience might prove the most important.
