There may come a time, many years from now, when we look back and realise that Liverpool’s attack was forged on the field at Motspur Park in New Malden.
In February 2018, Harvey Elliott started there on the right of a midfield trio in a 4-2-3-1 formation for Fulham’s under-18 side, against their counterparts from Reading.
It wouldn’t have been the now-Liverpool midfielder who caught the eye in their 4-0 victory though.
That honour would’ve fallen to the attacking midfielder stationed directly to his left.
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His name is Fabio Carvalho, he scored a hat-trick that day, and he is currently being monitored by Liverpool.
The Portuguese-born Fulham midfielder played a total of 25 games alongside Elliott for youth sides with club and country so will no doubt be able to get the inside track on life at Anfield should he be so inclined.
And as he is out of contract in the summer, Carvalho could yet be on the move before January is over if Fulham look to cash in on his talent while they still can.
Despite missing nine matches through injury, the 19-year-old has proved himself to be one of the best young players in the Championship this season.
He certainly appears to make Fulham better, with his average of 2.19 points per match played the sixth best figure in the division ( per FBRef ).
Only four teenagers have played more minutes in England’s second tier in this campaign, and no others have scored more than four goals when Carvalho has seven.
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Fulham’s No.28 is also the top under-20 for chances created and is fifth on a key passes per 90 minutes played basis for all players with at least 1,000 minutes.
Carvalho also has the joint-most assists in his age range (albeit only two), but numbers such as these are no guarantee of success at Liverpool.
The Reds have had a mixed bag with young players who performed well in the Championship in recent years. While Elliott has made the transition from loan move to the first team, not everyone has.
Joao Teixeira had a good spell with Brighton in 2014/15 but only ever made eight appearances for Liverpool.
Harry Wilson did even better, scoring 15 goals with Derby in 2018/19 and providing 11 assists for Cardiff City two years later. As he’s now been sold to Fulham, he might not talk the Reds up to Carvalho as much as Elliott surely would.
Irrespective of that, the young transfer target has some brief experience in the Premier League, and it might be this which drew Liverpool’s attention towards him.
It’s fun to imagine how things might work in the nerve centre of the Reds’ transfer operations.
You can picture them uploading the data from the latest round of matches and the computer going ping if something remarkable has occurred.
There’s every chance that could have happened after Carvalho’s first top-flight start, which came in a 3-1 defeat at Southampton last May.
Playing as a wing-back in Scott Parker’s 3-4-3 formation, the teenager made 44 pressures, the most of any player on either side.
There may well have been an element of a young man full of adrenaline and emotion going a little crazy and haring all over the place, but 44 pressures is a remarkable total.
For context, there were only two instances of a Liverpool player recording that many in a league or European match in the whole of last season, and no Red has topped 36 so far in 2021/22.
While Carvalho’s pressing rate was impressive that day, he also scored a well-taken goal in the second half.
Played in by a defence-splitting pass from Bobby De Cordova-Reid, the young midfielder lashed an unstoppable shot past Alex McCarthy and in off the crossbar.
With goals like that and a willingness to press, arguably the best young player on the Championship could be heading back to the Premier League in the very near future.
