Pre-season is a time for players to build up fitness and work on the fundamentals from tactics to pressing duties and also for up and coming starlets to get their chance to shine in front of Jurgen Klopp and his coaching staff.
One teenager who has already caught the eye of the manager and fellow Liverpool teammate Fabinho is that of Stefan Bajcetic.
“Yesterday he did really well, he was really important in the fourth goal,” the Brazilian told liverpoolfc.com.
“He recovered the ball in a really important area and then he passed to Harvey and Harvey did the assist to Darwin. It’s important.
“He has trained with us, he will get better, he will have more confidence to take the ball, to turn, to do some stuff that the No.6 does.
“It’s nice to have not just him but the other young lads as well playing really good football.”
The 17-year-old had a hand in Darwin Nunez’s hat-trick-sealing effort in a 5-0 win over RB Leipzig in the middle of the week amid a strong showing overall in the second-half of action in Germany.
Able to play as a holding midfielder, it’s only fitting that our No.3 should be the man to sing the youngster’s praises.
Showing a great deal of maturity despite his inexperience at a senior level of football, there are promising signs already to suggest that Klopp will be inclined to give Bajcetic more chances to showcase his talents in the testing grounds that are the early stages of the domestic cup competitions.
Klopp has certainly shown a willingness historically to gift minutes to those talents he deems ready to make the step up and Bajcetic could be the latest to seize such an opportunity.