At the age of 16 years and 207 days, Harry Wilson had already made his senior debut for the Welsh national team, becoming the youngest ever debutant in Welsh history – beating Gareth Bale’s record.
He also became one of the few British players to become full internationals at the age of 16 in the 21st century.
You might be wondering why the youngster has only added six senior appearances for Wales since then but if you were following his progress closely then there is no denying that the 21-year-old has now matured as a player and is more than ready to rake the next step in his career.
The Liverpool youngster has made huge progress since he started playing regular first-team football last season while on loan at Hull City and he has continued his fine form into his loan move at Derby County.
Wilson has consistently performed well despite playing for two different managers with two completely different styles of play in just over six months something which is remarkable especially for someone of his age.
The winger spent all his youth career at Liverpool playing in all the levels of the club’s youth set-up. He signed his first professional contract in July 2014 before dominating almost every level of youth football with the club.
Despite this, he had featured in only one senior appearance for the Reds by the time of his loan move to Hull came around, a 30-minute cameo against Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup. The left-footed winger managed to score seven goals in just 13 apps for Hull after his loan move in the middle of the 2017/18 season.
Wilson’s qualities
The young Welsh international can play on both sides of the wings as well as a central attacking midfielder. He is the type of a winger who can create goal-scoring chances as well as provide a direct goal-scoring threat from wide positions.
His early career at Liverpool also saw him being deployed as a secondary striker or as a false nine. Blessed with electric acceleration, agility that allows for effective dribbling at speed coupled with a quick change of directions and of course brilliant delivery of the final ball, Wilson has all the hallmarks of a typical winger.
Wilson is good at attacking the halfspaces, something which makes him a bit more of a natural winger although his brilliant technical ability has seen him to be deployed in more deeper areas in order to be involved in more build up play by Frank Lampard at Derby.
Talking of Wilson technical ability; the winger is blessed with a great touch, dribbling and close control and his confidence allows him to constantly beat his marker with guile and smart movements.
The 21-year-old is blessed with brilliant end product and a good attacking awareness. The fact that he has delivered for both Hull and Derby shows how lethal in front of goal he can be.
At Derby, he is the one providing the fluidity in the final third as most attacking moves start or flow through him. He constantly moves across the attacking zones, making him to be unpredictable for defenders.
Wilson is also very good from dead ball situations and set pieces. In fact, this is his main strength as he has scored a lot of free kicks recently for club and country.
A great attacking addition
Wilson will be a great addition to the Liverpool side next season. He plays with the quality and maturity that differentiates him from many young talents. He will be a good cover to both Mane and Salah because he is able to play from either side.
The youngtser’s ability to take long shots from outside the area will bring a different dimension to Liverpool’s attack while his goal-scoring prowess from wide positions is something that is typical to all Jurgen’s Klopp’s current wide men.
This season he has attempted an average of 2.9 shots per game in the Championship, scoring 10 goals in 20 appearances. He has also managed to score more goals from outside the area than anyone in Europe’s top five leagues.
When comparing him to Mane, Salah and Shaqiri who are Liverpool’s current wingers, Wilson betters them all when it comes to attacking from outside the box. This season all of Mane, Salah and Xherdan Shaqiri have scored just one goal from outside the area out of the 27 combined goals they have scored in the Premier League.
Wilson has scored an outstanding six goals from outside the box in the Championship. Furthermore, out of the 60 shots he has taken for Derby County this season, 45 of them have come from outside the box. In comparison, Mo Salah has taken only 19 shots from outside the box without scoring from any one of them, while Mane has only taken nine.
Xherdan Shaqiri is the only one to have scored from outside the box and he has attempted 13 shots.
