The Case for Dominic Solanke to Lead the Chelsea Attack Against Liverpool

With the Premier League title wrapped up and fitness concerns surrounding his strikers, Jose Mourinho was quizzed on Friday if those situations could mean a full debut for Dominic Solanke against Liverpool on Sunday.

Chelsea's 17-year-old striker is hot property, scoring a hat-trick against the Reds' under-21s in midweek to take his goal tally for the season to 41.

It's an incredible return for a striker who continues to make big waves at youth-team level.

"He wants to play, but I will protect him all the way," Mourinho explained, referring to Diego Costa's on-going battle with his troublesome hamstrings.

"Let's try to find a balance between the risk and the desire that he has to play and try to score a couple of goals."

Given his goalscoring feats, that left questions over whether Solanke will get his chance with the first team. After all, Chelsea have nothing to lose against Liverpool.

For Solanke, there's everything to gain, but Mourinho was cautious.

"This kid is playing a lot. He's playing everywhere and he's playing for every team, starting with the first team in the Champions League, through to the under-21s and the under-18s," said the Chelsea manager.

"He's played everywhere in every competition and that's very, very important for him. I don't know for Sunday, but probably no because I think we have [Loic] Remy and [Didier] Drogba to play this game.

"But for sure, his time will arrive, and he will be a Chelsea player."

It's rare young players get opportunities to impress without any pressure on their performance—something Mourinho has previously alluded to himself—so why not make that time now for Solanke?

We know what Remy can do, as is the case with Drogba. Besides, the latter is 37 years old and, as such, is not going to be offering Chelsea much on the pitch.

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Drogba doesn't even have a contract for next season, so will he even be at Stamford Bridge?

Solanke will, though, and the hope is that will remain the case for some time.

For all his goals at youth level, Solanke remains an unknown quantity in the Premier League. History is filled with players who were big hitters in the junior ranks but never transferred their talents to a more senior level.

That could happen with Solanke, or he could prove to be the next Michael Owen.

It's rather apt Chelsea should face Liverpool this weekend with a groundswell of support for Solanke's inclusion. After all, it was as a Liverpool player that a young Owen announced himself.

Like Solanke is doing now, Owen blazed a considerable trail in youth football, being given his Liverpool debut against Wimbledon on May 6, 1997.

He may have looked a weedy 17-year-old back then, but that didn't stop him scoring his team's only goal after coming off the bench to replace Patrik Berger in a 2-1 defeat.

Owen's performance was all the proof of his brilliance the club needed, and by the following campaign, Owen was a regular starter. In 1997/98, during which he turned 18, he went on to rifle home 23 goals in 44 appearances.

Owen also earned a surprise call-up to England's 1998 World Cup squad.

To suggest the same could happen for Solanke because of one potential appearance is fanciful in the extreme. In the 18 years since Owen's debut—note, Solanke wasn't even born—football has changed considerably, and the situation at Liverpool and Chelsea is far different.

There are parallels, however. The virtues of Owen's emergence remain as valid today.

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Owen was given an opportunity, and he took it—partly because of a will to succeed, but mainly because he had the talent to make the most of it.

Had it not been for injuries blighting his career, we'd be talking about one of Europe's finest strikers. Owen was a phenomenon.

Solanke is hinting he can go that way himself. He scored 22 goals while playing above his age group last season, and a year on, he has all but doubled that tally.

"No [he has not surprised me]," Mourinho continued. "The kid did pre-season with us. In pre-season he was playing with us in Hungary, in Turkey, in Germany, in Holland. He was playing with us [and] training with us.

"During the season he did the same. A few times he was on the bench, against Crystal Palace and Manchester United. He played against Maribor in the Champions League, so we know what we have there.

"Him and his people have to control the emotions because it is very important to trust us the same way we trust the player. Controlling the emotions is very important."

Mourinho's warning was right—the voice of a manager with plenty of experience to see where young players can make mistakes with their careers.

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It's about gradual steps.

Yet to appease Solanke's emotions and keep them in check in the way Mourinho hopes, some sort of involvement against Liverpool will go a long way.

It will show where Chelsea are heading and that the club's encouraging youth project is gathering the right sort of momentum.

Pride will be on the line against a significant rival when Liverpool visit Stamford Bridge on Sunday. More importantly for Chelsea, they have the opportunity to make the future now.

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes