Our boss Jurgen Klopp made a few ripples back in January when he went on a recalling binge and claimed Liverpool’s use of the loan system needed to be reconsidered (via Mirror).
“It is important we take our own players back like with Kent, Ojo and Tiago,” he said at the time.
“These are our players and we have a situation (with the injuries). In my opinion the best talents should be at their own club so they can play together for the under-21s and develop as a team, so you always have them around you.”
That was all well and good, and it is fair to say that a lot of fans agreed with him.
It was a bit of a head-scratcher, therefore, when a few days later he decided to allow Belgian outfit Sint-Truidense to loan Allan Rodrigues de Souza until the end of the season.
In practice, the move was necessitated by various work permit issues – and it’s all working out well regardless, Allan has been ever-present in their side since joining.
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Now, Klopp has spoken in public about the youngster:
“When I came here, one or two months later Allan was here and I said ‘who is this?’. ‘He is a player for us and the week before he became a champion in Finland.’ ‘Interesting – why didn’t he play here?’ ‘Because it’s not possible.’ And then I started learning about the FA rules and things like this,” said Klopp.
“I saw him in training and I thought ‘oh my God, what can we do to keep this boy here and bring him into the line-up?’ He’s 19 years old, an outstanding talent, a good player with a good attitude, everybody loves him, he’s a nice lad – so that’s really, really good. He’s a smart player
“There is no chance in this moment here because he can’t get the permission to play here, so we have to send him out on loan. We sent him to Belgium and he did well, really well until now. We had no doubts about this, it was a good transfer for both sides.
“Now for the first time he has got an invitation for the national U20 team, and that’s great. It’s really deserved because he’s an outstanding talent. Everybody has seen him, but it’s not too easy to have a lot of pictures of him because most of the time he has played in other countries.
“We hope we can find a solution in the future because he will be a fixed part of the squad in the future, for sure. Now he uses this time to improve and the next step to the U20 national team of Brazil is a great story.”
Can Allan become a starter next season? Have you seen him in action in Belgium? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.