Loan target Rhian Brewster not guaranteed matches at Crystal Palace

Rhian Brewster may not be interested in Crystal Palace, suggests Roy Hodgson, as the Liverpool man would not be a certain starter.

Liverpool striker Rhian Brewster

Liverpool teenager Rhian Brewster would not be guaranteed regular Premier League starts if he joined Crystal Palace on loan, says Roy Hodgson.

The 19-year-old is one of England's most highly rated young forwards, having fired the Young Lions to Under-17 World Cup glory in 2017.

But Brewster subsequently suffered serious knee and ankle injuries and only made his Liverpool debut against MK Dons in the EFL Cup in September.

The striker has featured just once at senior level since - in the same competition - and is yet to score for the Reds. He therefore looks primed for a loan move in January, with Palace and Aston Villa both linked with bids.

But Palace manager Hodgson would be reluctant to offer any assurances over game time for a player yet to appear in the Premier League, suggesting he might prefer to look for opportunities elsewhere.

"[Brewster] is a good player, there's no doubt about that," the former Liverpool boss told a news conference. "The only thing that would concern me there is that I don't know quite how many guaranteed games [he would get].

"If I was going to speak to Jurgen and he was going to talk to me about, 'I want Rhian Brewster to go out on loan and play some matches,' I'm not 100 per cent certain I could guarantee him that he would be the first name on the team sheet.

"He would be in competition with the three players we already have, who are experienced players and quality players. So, I'm not 100 per certain that that will do anything other than be useful for us in terms of having another player who could come in from time to time and certainly help us out.

"But if I was Jurgen Klopp and Rhian Brewster, I think I'd want to be going somewhere where I was the first name on the team sheet and I could guarantee that, between January and May, I'd be playing 20 matches."

Palace has scored just 11 goals in the Premier League this season, with only basement side Watford managing fewer. Club-record signing Christian Benteke, who arrived from Liverpool in 2016, has just four Premier League goals since the start of the 2017-18 campaign.