Life has just gotten more complicated for young talented Argentine forwards. For years they’ve had to cope with the pressure of being likened with Diego Armando Maradona, now there’s also the shadow of Lionel Messi hanging over them.

The latter was the tag attached to Gerardo Bruna when he decided to swap Madrid to Merseyside last summer. Then again, the parallels in his case were too obvious to overlook. As with the Barcelona star, Bruna had left Argentina when quite young to join Real Madrid – although contrary to Messi he has actually opted to play for Spain - and he too was rather on the small side but with great ability on the ball.

Initially, however, it looked like that last qualification had been rather over-hyped. Drafted into the reserves side rather than the academy team, Bruna looked well above his abilities when given the odd five minutes’ play by Gary Ablett. Easily shrugged off the ball, his passes often failed to find their intended targets and every time he tried to go past player the move was immediately cut short.

Slowly, however, his play started to improve as he started to get more comfortable with his settings. His passes got better, his dribbling much more effective and a talent at free kicks started to shine through. Now it is much easier to see why there was so much excitement around him.

First team football for Bruna, however, is still some way off. Physically he still looks too much like the sixteen year old that he is and bulking up will be a priority over the next twelve months.
The reserves team is the ideal setting for that, giving him a taste of competitive football that is slightly toned down from the physical aggressiveness of the Premier League. Yet if he continues progressing as he has so far since joining Liverpool, this time next years the calls to see him in the first team should be mirroring those that are currently pushing to see Kristian Nemeth make an appearance.

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