Patson Daka is red hot.
The RB Salzburg forward struck twice against Liverpool in Tuesday's pre-season friendly to hit the ground running after his astonishing scoring exploits in Austria last season.
Patson Daka statistics
Despite having restricted minutes, particularly earlier in the campaign when he was behind Takumi Minamino and Erling Haaland in the pecking order, his rate of goals plus assists was quite extraordinary.
Granted, the Austrian Bundesliga is not one of Europe's elite leagues, but Daka's performances are good striking they deserve to be highlighted.
A huge 24 goals in the league - no penalties - plus six assists in just 1873 minutes of action. That equates to a non-penalty contribution P90 of a staggering 1.44. Only Hwang Hee-Chan - who has since moved on to partner club RB Leipzig - comes anywhere near him with 1.20 (minimum 1,000 minutes).
His shots P90 of 4.2 and shot accuracy of 55% are both league-leading statistics as well, while his conversion rate of 27% puts him in the top three, while his split of goals to home v away is a perfectly symmetrical 12 and 12.
He scores anywhere, and even more interesting is his contribution spread - an FC statistic which looks at the number of individual matches a player contributes in. Daka had a goal or an assist in a giant 76% of his outings, meaning he isn't padding statistics by scoring or assisting three or four times in the one match, rather spreading his moments of impact across multiple games.
As witnessed particularly in his second goal against Liverpool, Daka is a player that lives in the penalty area, with on average 8.1 touches in the box P90. His goals are typically scored from close range and owing to the excellent service of his team-mates.
He is a player with outstanding pace at his disposal to stride away from opposition defenders, and when in one-on-situations has a real clarity of thought and poise. Given he is just 21 and this is his breakout season, it's likely Salzburg will want to keep him for at least another year. But his transfer to a leading European side looks as certain as the one which saw Haaland move to Dortmund earlier this year.
Potential Fee: £25-35m
Liverpool 
Man Utd 
Arsenal 
Everton 
