Liverpool starlet Dani Pacheco has had a frustrating season, and is on loan in the Spanish second division. But is there hope?
Former Liverpool wonderkid Dani Pacheco may be excused for feeling disappointed with his season, for an opportunity was there for the taking earlier this campaign with injuries troubling the first team.
The Spaniard did get some football under his belt though, but he would have hoped for more than two Europa League games and one League Cup appearance.
He admitted to the Liverpool Echo that he was finding it tough, one minute being with the under-21 side, and the next with the senior squad, and being shunted backwards and forth between the two meant there was a lack of continuity.
In the end, Brendan Rodgers decreed he still wasn't quite ready, and left him with the under-21s, for who he scored four goals and provided six assists in nine games.
Too good for the under-21s, and not ready for the first team. So what did Liverpool decide to do - loan him to Spanish second division side Huesca.
It was hardly the most exciting of moves, and said little about his immediate prospects, but it could actually have been a good thing.
Over in the Segunda Division, Pacheco is getting regular football under his belt finally - something he simply did not do on loan at Atletico Madrid last season, in part due to injury, but also because he wasn't good enough to become a regular for them.
So if the aim of this spell was to give him experience and confidence as a player, at 22 he is no longer viewed as the wonderkid he once was due to injury and potential mismanagement - but he still has a chance, and his time at Huesca may yet be the making of him.
If you want to take that optimistic view - It may just be working, for this month he has tapped into a run of exciting form.
After scoring on his debut, Pacheco went a spell of eight games without a goal, but since breaking that drought on March 31 it has all changed for him.
In his last three games, Pacheco has two goals and three assists - including a one goal and two assist show in a 4-3 victory over CE Sabadell in Huesca's last match.
The standard of the opposition may not be Real Madrid or Barcelona, or even Swansea City, but Pacheco is doing his very best to give himself a chance.
At the least he will be full of confidence by time pre-season comes around, and if he can impress his manager and show the spell has done him good, who knows - Next season may finally be his breakthrough.
Former Liverpool wonderkid Dani Pacheco may be excused for feeling disappointed with his season, for an opportunity was there for the taking earlier this campaign with injuries troubling the first team.
The Spaniard did get some football under his belt though, but he would have hoped for more than two Europa League games and one League Cup appearance.
He admitted to the Liverpool Echo that he was finding it tough, one minute being with the under-21 side, and the next with the senior squad, and being shunted backwards and forth between the two meant there was a lack of continuity.
In the end, Brendan Rodgers decreed he still wasn't quite ready, and left him with the under-21s, for who he scored four goals and provided six assists in nine games.
Too good for the under-21s, and not ready for the first team. So what did Liverpool decide to do - loan him to Spanish second division side Huesca.
It was hardly the most exciting of moves, and said little about his immediate prospects, but it could actually have been a good thing.
Over in the Segunda Division, Pacheco is getting regular football under his belt finally - something he simply did not do on loan at Atletico Madrid last season, in part due to injury, but also because he wasn't good enough to become a regular for them.
So if the aim of this spell was to give him experience and confidence as a player, at 22 he is no longer viewed as the wonderkid he once was due to injury and potential mismanagement - but he still has a chance, and his time at Huesca may yet be the making of him.
If you want to take that optimistic view - It may just be working, for this month he has tapped into a run of exciting form.
After scoring on his debut, Pacheco went a spell of eight games without a goal, but since breaking that drought on March 31 it has all changed for him.
In his last three games, Pacheco has two goals and three assists - including a one goal and two assist show in a 4-3 victory over CE Sabadell in Huesca's last match.
The standard of the opposition may not be Real Madrid or Barcelona, or even Swansea City, but Pacheco is doing his very best to give himself a chance.
At the least he will be full of confidence by time pre-season comes around, and if he can impress his manager and show the spell has done him good, who knows - Next season may finally be his breakthrough.
