Jurgen Klopp is delighted with the progress of Liverpool’s best Academy prospects, but doesn’t think he’ll ever take charge of a side which includes solely those developed at Kirkby, despite the number currently knocking on the door.
Ben Woodburn became Liverpool’s youngest ever goalscorer when he bagged against Leeds United, while Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ovie Ejaria both performed excellently as well.
That’s before mentioning the likes of Sheyi Ojo (who was used frequently last season), Yan Dhanda, Luis Longstaff, Bobby Adekanye and Toni Gomes.
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Klopp though is adamant he’ll still need to recruit players to go straight into the first-team, but is confident a number of Academy prospects will develop and enter his squad.
“We will probably have to do both! (Buy players and bring through young players…),” he told today’s press-conference ahead of the weekend tie with Bournemouth on the south coast.
“Liverpool’s team of 2020 being just homegrown players would be nice, but not so nice for the others!
“It’s our job to give them the time we need.
“We don’t have to change anything because we never forgot them. They are involved in all our plans.
“I don’t know exactly when you stop being a young player. 22, 23 is still a young player. We have a lot of them in the club.
“There will be a few ups and downs, but everything will be good in the end. We have no doubt about the potential of these young boys.”
We’ve a run of tough Premier League fixtures from now until the end of the year, but then the FA Cup begins and we’ll hopefully get a chance to use our youngsters again. Klopp could deploy a stronger side in the EFL Cup semi-final with Southampton, having navigated our way through to this round with youngsters so far.