Pep Lijnders has named three Liverpool youngsters that ‘stand out’ at the club’s Academy and that he wants to participate in Jurgen Klopp’s pre-season preparations.
The Reds first team squad will meet up on July 4 at the AXA Training Centre ahead of the new campaign that will begin against Fulham at Craven Cottage on August 6.
The Anfield outfit also face Manchester City in the Community Shield on July 30 at Leicester’s King Power stadium.
“This is just my personal opinion, but I think a coach should be judged much more on the young players he brings through,” he said back in January (as quoted by the Mirror).
“I really believe in our project looking at our academy. For example, I spent yesterday morning at the Academy to speak with the coaches and Alex Inglethorpe.
“We look all the time at the Academy. [On Tuesday] our U18s played against Burnley in the FA Youth Cup, we had Bobby Clark, Luke Chambers, Stefan Bajcetic, they all stand out. I hope they come with us during the pre-season because it is important for them to have a proper pre-season to know exactly how we want to do things.”
Luke Chambers is currently represting England U19s at the European Championships in Slovakia and will therefore be given an extended summer break.
The young Three Lions have reached the final of the tournament where they’ll face Israel tomorrow.
Bobby Clark and Stefan Bajcetic, however, have already returned to training at Kirby with the rest of the Reds U19 and U21 squads.
Lijnders, who is the club’s assistant manager, has also returned early in order to monitor the club’s next generation of talent.
Klopp has always offered chances to younger players ever since arriving on Merseyside in 2015.
Last season saw the likes of Tyler Morton, Conor Bradley and Kaide Gordon earn first team minutes and they regularly train alongside the first team.
The club has made three signings so far this window and all three have time on their side.
Calvin Ramsay (18), Fabio Carvalho (19) and Darwin Nunez (23) have all arrived on Merseyside this summer and may mark the beginning of a mini-rebuild at the club.
The future is certainly exciting and it’s great to see that the club are thinking about both the immediate and the future success off the side.