Steve McManaman heaped praised on Liverpool’s academy and suggested that Jurgen Klopp unleash some of his club’s young talent in the upcoming League Cup clash against Chelsea.
The Reds legend specifically highlighted 17-year-old midfielder Curtis Jones, 18-year-old attacking midfielder Rafael Camacho and 18-year-old forward Rhian Brewster when raving about his former side’s youth system.
McManaman claimed that a number of the Reds’ youngsters are doing well and that it would be interesting to see if any of the club’s promising talents feature in the cup match against the Blues.
“Chelsea will be a great opportunity for some of them,” stated McManaman, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo.
“They’ll do the same as they’ve got a huge squad. It’ll be interesting to see what teams are put out.
“I go to the academy regularly and know all the young lads well. They’re doing well as shown by Trent and the work they’re doing at the academy is absolutely fantastic.
“A number of them are doing well, like Curtis Jones and Rafa Camacho. Rhian Brewster speaks for himself too after winning the World Cup.
“All the people at the academy deserve a huge pat on the back as they’re doing a great job.”
OPINION
McManaman shared that he regularly visits the Reds’ academy so he knows first hand what a fantastic job everyone involved with the club’s youth system is doing as he has seen the results for himself. The BT Sport pundit was once described as the most promising player in the Reds’ ranks by the legendary Ian Rush, as stated by the club’s official website, before going on to make 364 appearances for the club. Therefore it would be nice if one day McManaman’s decision to namedrop Jones, Camacho or Brewster looked equally as wise. As it stands Brewster has the best chance out of the three youngsters highlighted of making a positive impact soon. The 18-year-old looks set to be involved with Klopp’s first-team plans in the second half of the season once he recovers from an ankle injury. However Brewster’s emergence into the Reds’ first-team may act as signal to open the floodgates if he does well and the German manager could soon raid his academy in order to benefit from having such a promising bunch of youngsters available to him.
