Premier League leaders Liverpool sent Ovie Ejaria out on loan to Championship strugglers Reading in the summer and he is impressing.
As fans of Rangers and Sunderland will tell you, Ovie Ejaria can flit effortlessly between outstanding and anonymous. He often settles on the latter.
But, after joining Reading on loan over the summer, the Liverpool-owned play-maker is finally starting to add some semblance of consistency to his game.
The 21-year-old has natural ability by the bucket load. He carries the ball beautifully with his rangy, languid style and, as Bristol City’s defenders found out on Saturday, he is almost impossible to predict.
Ejaria had the Robins back line on strings at times with Ashley Williams and co dancing to his tune at Ashton Gate. How Ejaria didn’t have an assist to cheer at the end of a dazzling display is anyone’s guess.
George Puscas’s profligacy certainly didn’t help as Jose Gomes’s Reading slipped to yet another damaging defeat thanks to a Famara Diedhiou header in the south west.
And a future at the heart of Jurgen Klopp’s star-studded engine room looks beyond Ejaria right now. If Harry Wilson and Ryan Kent aren’t going to get a chance, what chance does the former Arsenal youngster realistically have of forcing Gini Wijnaldum and co out of the starting XI, even if he does have that natural creativity that Liverpool are lacking in a rather workmanlike midfield?
But, like Wilson and Kent, Ejaria could still have a fine career away from Anfield. He’s certainly got the ability to become one of the Championship’s most influential playmakers if starts performing to his best for a full 90 minutes.
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