Liverpool midfielder Ovie Ejaria is hopeful he will be in contention for first team action once again if he works hard enough to impress manager Jurgen Klopp on the training pitch and for the Under 23s side.
Ejaria impressed fans and the Reds management during preseason but injury hampered his progress, and he only returned to playing action on Sunday for Liverpool Under 23s 4-0 thrashing of Leicester City. Klopp was in attendance at the match and Ejaria is hoping to catch the German’s eye once again after gaining confidence from his team talk to the young players earier in the summer. He said to the Liverpool Echo:
“I want to keep getting games with the U23s and hopefully I can get a chance to get minutes with the first team if I keep doing well and keep impressing. In pre-season the manager was just saying to us (young players) to keep playing, keep doing what we’re doing, that we’re doing well. It gave us confidence and I think you could see that when we kept going on the pitch.”
Ejaria will have a challenge getting first team action this season. Along with Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Emre Can, Kevin Stewart and Lucas Leiva, new signings Georginio Wijnaldum and Marko Grujic are all competing for two spots in the central midfield areas. Whether Klopp rates Ejaria highly enough will determine how much game time he gets this season
