Jurgen Klopp appears to have dropped a hint that one particularly promising Liverpool academy talent is in his thinking for a potential first-team call-up.
This season has already seen numerous youngsters enjoy senior game-time, with Jarell Quansah and Conor Bradley the two standout examples, while Ben Doak, James McConnell and Bobby Clark are among others to have been given minutes.
The Reds’ fledgling talents could be in line for further outings over the coming weeks amid a spate of injuries to first-team regulars, and speaking in his press conference on Tuesday afternoon, the manager namechecked one up-and-coming prodigy who’s yet to receive a senior debut but has been making waves at underage level in Jayden Danns.
Klopp said of Liverpool’s young starlets: “We are where we are because of them. The boys really delivered and we’ll see how many of them we will have to use and will give the opportunity, because in a good moment they all can be in. We have still options there, definitely.
“We have players who showed already what they can do in James [McConnell] and Bobby [Clark]. There’s others who didn’t feature yet but are in and around [the first team]. [Lewis] Koumas, Dannsy, Trey [Nyoni], they are all massive talents. We will see what we do but now we are just planning for tomorrow [v Luton].”
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While Koumas and Nyoni have been in senior matchday squads this season without being brought on, Danns is yet to get the call-up from Klopp, but the manager’s mention of the 18-year-old in today’s press conference suggests that the striker may be in the German’s thinking.
The teenager has enjoyed a magnificent campaign in the academy ranks, with nine goals in his first seven games in the Under-18 Premier League earning him a promotion to the under-21 side, for whom he scored two goals and provided one assist in his first three outings (Transfermarkt).
He also came to the fore in the under-21s’ win over Newcastle at the weekend, setting up Nyoni’s opener and winning the penalty that Kaide Gordon converted (liverpoolfc.com).
Danns has 16 goals in as many matches at underage level this term (Transfermarkt), so there’s not much more he can be doing to nudge his way into Klopp’s consciousness.
Having not even made a senior matchday squad yet, it’d obviously be a huge gamble to throw him into the first team straight away, but the intense fixture schedule and injury pile-up may well see him included among the substitutes for the senior side over the coming weeks.
In Quansah and Bradley, the 18-year-old has two players he can strive to emulate in terms of making a rapid emergence to Liverpool’s first team, should he be entrusted with a debut at that level in the final third of this season.
You can view Klopp’s comments below (from 6:27), via Liverpool FC on YouTube: