Klopp credits Academy staff for pre-season breakthroughs
Jürgen Klopp has lavished praised upon Alex Inglethorpe and his Academy staff after a summer that has seen a number of the club's young players make their mark at first-team level.
Ben Woodburn, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ovie Ejaria are among a handful of starlets who made the step up to senior level during the Reds' pre-season schedule - and to impressive effect.
Klopp, who has made a habit of blooding young players since arriving at Anfield, says that is only possible because of the foundations laid by Inglethorpe and the team in Kirkby.
But, as ever, the German is targeting constant improvement.
"I only change things where I know about a situation. I’d never change just for change," the boss told the Liverpool Echo.
"I’ve had a lot of good talks with the guys at the Academy. Alex Inglethorpe does a brilliant job there.
"Last season we had Ojo, Brannagan, Randall, Smith, Stewart and Chirivella who played in real games for the first team.
"We’ve had Ben Woodburn, Ovie Ejaria and Trent playing for us in the friendly games. Shamal George has been in a good way too.
"That’s eight or nine. What do we want? We want 20 of this quality.
"It’s a big number of players. We have to create better situations to make them better.
"The Academy has done well to bring them to this level. I don’t know whether we could have done it better but I know that they’ve done a good job.
"We have to keep working on the things we can make better but that doesn’t mean changing people."
The Reds boss is also aware of the desire to see Liverpool natives in the first team at Anfield - though he insists the quality of each player is his biggest concern.
"Trent is a real Scouser, right?" he added.
"First of all it’s about football. It certainly makes sense that we have a big number of English players.
"And if there’s a player who is a Scouser and can play football then we should go for him 100 per cent. But it’s not the first thing we should think about."
Over the course of his career, Klopp has deservedly earned a reputation for giving young players their first chance in senior football - some of whom he has turned into stars.
And he knows just how much the possibility of an opportunity to shine in the first team motivates the many talented hopefuls at the Academy.
"That’s how it should be. They need to know about the possibility," Klopp said.
"To say it is one thing, to show it is completely different.
"These guys know now that if they improve and make the next steps then they will have a real future here.
"Even when they don’t have a future here, Liverpool has to create a situation where players who don’t progress to play in the first team, get to play minimum in the Championship and have the potential to play in the Premier League. The Championship is an unbelievable league with intense football.
"It’s not that we have 20 players in one age group and 15 of them are only going to be able to play in League Two.
"It’s our responsibility to help the boys. We judge them. They stay here because they are good but we have to help them go on to have a real career, whether that’s at Liverpool or somewhere else."