Jurgen Klopp could keep his faith in many of those who featured in Liverpool’s youngest ever lineup in the recent FA Cup tie against Plymouth when the Reds face the League Two side in tomorrow’s replay.
His plans to do so became clear when a number of recognisable names were left out of Monday night’s U23s squad for their game against Manchester United, which they unfortunately went on to lose 1-0.
The likes of Ben Woodburn, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ovie Ejaria look set to retain their place in the starting line-up having been regulars in the first team in cup competitions.
They could also be joined by U23s captain Harry Wilson who has been tipped to make his debut in the senior team after catching the eye with his 19 goals and nine assists so far this season.
Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com: “Harry Wilson is a wonderful young player, that’s how it is, in a few moments, I was impressed.”
“I have no line-up but, in our situation, we had to keep a few players out of the game [against United] yesterday but obviously that didn’t help, so apologies to the U23s! Again, my fault.”
“We need to have the choice of what we can do and he is part of all our thoughts for this game and we will see.”
“We have, in general, a very young team. I said before the last game we had a lot of good reasons to line up like we did and it will be same case for Wednesday, we will have good reasons for the line-up.”
The 19-year-old has been a standout performer in Liverpool’s second-string side and is just as worthy as any youngster of getting a chance to prove himself.
A trip to Plymouth promises to be an important learning curve for Klopp’s youngsters as they are confronted by a noisy home crowd and a physical side playing with the belief that they can snatch a shock win at their own ground.