Two full games. Two wins. Two goals. Not a bad start for the talented Joao Carlos Teixeira, who is currently on loan at Championship club Brighton Hove and Albion.
Teixeira is a talented 21-year-old, who signed for Liverpool after impressing for Sporting Lisbon at Anfield in their 3-0 win in the Next Gen Series. As a result, the Reds paid £830,000 for the Portuguese youngster. Hailed as the "next Deco", he impressed for the club's youth side and made the step up to the U21s where he continued to impress. Because of a lack of playing opportunities for the first team, he was loaned out to Brentford but when the Bees handed him just two appearances after Uwe Rösler admitted that due to the team's downturn in form he could not afford to play Teixeira, the loan was mutually terminated. After returning to the Liverpool, he made his senior team debut as an 81st minute substitute against Fulham, in a tight 3–2 win for the Reds. Teixeira was involved in the build up play that led to Daniel Sturridge winning the penalty that won Liverpool the game and was praised by both Brendan Rodgers and Steven Gerrard.
To help Teixeria's progression, he was loaned to Brighton to earn some first-team experience in English football before he attempts the step-up to the Liverpool first team. He first came on for Sami Hyypia's men as a sub for the final half-an-hour versus Birmigham City and he looked to cause problems against the Brummies, earning rave reviews from their supporters, but they fell to a 1-0 defeat regardless.
Three days afterwards, in his first full game for Hyypia's Brighton, the highly-regarded Liverpool youth rewarded the former towering centre-back's faith with a low-angled placed finish past the keeper in just the fifth minute in a 2-0 victory over Leeds United at Elland Road. Teixeira once again shone for the Seagulls. Kazenga LuaLua sealed the win late on, but the Portueguese man continued to make an impression throughout the full 90 and came in for praise afterwards.
Brighton boss told the cameras after the game: "Of course I am grateful to them for letting Joao come to us and get the games he needs, but it works both ways.
"They can benefit too because his time with us can hopefully be a stepping stone towards Liverpool's first team.
"He is a young player and Liverpool have a very big squad. A player of his age needs to play games to improve. We have a quality player and I am very happy to have him with us."
Lately, he struck his second goal in as many games for Brighton with the winner as they prevailed 2-1 over Bolton Wanderers on Saturday. After coming from behind, Teixeira latched on to a pass before bursting into the box, before cutting inside onto his right foot, taking it past his man and firing a low shot through the legs of keeper Andy Lonergan on 64 minutes. It was a composed finish, and one that further endeared him to the Brighton fans as he makes waves on the South Coast.
There are fears over the youngster's physicality for the Premier League, but on these showings - Teixeira is eager to prove a point to Liverpool and could be in the running for the first team sooner than expected. Clearly, the opportunities being given to him are working wonders and his superior guile and flair in the Championship is too much for defenders of that level.
Despite failing to earn opportunites at League One's Brentford the year before, Teixeira is grabbing this chance by the horns and taking full advantage. Once again, his Brighton manager had nothing but good things to say about him:
"He's good on the ball, a good football player, an intelligent player that can score goals," said former fan-favourite Hyypia, who represented the Reds 464 times.
"I think our style of play suits him as well. From our point of view, we can have a very good player on our side. He has a good mentality, is training well and we can push him to improve himself.
"We need quality from the other players so that we can get him on the ball in dangerous areas and he can score goals. I think when we can get him on the ball around the box, he will be dangerous there."
He has the potential to be a top player, could this be the start of something good? We'll just have to wait and see.