When Liverpool last travelled to Brighton & Hove Albion earlier this month, a shambolic 3-0 defeat left Jurgen Klopp in no doubt that he needed to make changes to his side.
That day, he fielded what is, on paper at least, his strongest midfield in Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, and Thiago Alcantara. Yet the Reds’ engine room woes continued as the trio struggled, and not for the first time.
Henderson and Fabinho were dropped for the FA Cup replay against Wolves off the back of the loss, as Naby Keita and Stefan Bajcetic were brought into the starting XI in their place. Klopp was rewarded with an improved showing and the pair then kept their places against Chelsea last weekend, with Bajcetic making his first Premier League start in the process.
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And as Liverpool’s 0-0 draw with the Londoners made it back-to-back clean sheets, Klopp was effusive with his praise for the young Spaniard.
“I am not even sure the door was open but Stefan right through it,” the Reds boss said. “He was exceptional in this moment, I think that is clear.”
Having overhauled their attack over the past 12 months, a midfield revamp is planned at Anfield in 2023. Yet, such surgery is seemingly on hold until the summer, with Klopp repeatedly insisting throughout January that he doesn’t expect to strengthen his squad any further.
If that remains the case come 11pm on Tuesday, January 31 when the transfer window closes, then the German will have to make do with what he has. Despite still only being 18, Bajcetic will remain part of his first team-plans.
“He was (in my thoughts) for a while already,” Klopp admitted when asked about the teenager at his Chelsea pre-match press conference. “He was injured for two games.
“He’s in my thoughts, you can’t be closer to a team than be always in the squad, coming on, stuff like this. He was only not in the squad twice I think because he was injured. It doesn’t look like we have to be careful (with his development).”
Liverpool travel to Brighton again on Sunday, this time in the FA Cup fourth round. If Bajcetic isn’t in Klopp’s starting XI on the South Coast, it will be for very different reasons.
In a ‘normal’ Reds season, such a game would be one where you could expect Klopp to rotate. In a ‘normal’ Reds season, you’d expect a number of youngsters to be handed rare starting opportunities in the process.
But having started Liverpool’s last two matches, whether Bajcetic lines up against Brighton from the start or not, it’ll be a sign of his new place in Klopp’s pecking order as the likes of Fabinho and Henderson continue to falter. Either he starts as first choice or his legs are spared with loftier games in mind.
Of course, with the Reds’ Champions League qualification hopes hanging by a thread at the season’s midway point, it would be a bold call to stick with an 18-year-old as Liverpool’s first-choice holding midfielder ahead of two experienced internationals for the rest of the campaign. But, for now, he is the midfielder in form and the man in possession of the shirt.
It’s easy to forget he is only two years into his Anfield career, with Bajcetic’s rise since joining the Reds Academy in December 2020 surprising the modest teenager himself.
“I’m a little bit surprised to be fair,” he said after Saturday’s draw with Chelsea. “Last season I was playing Under-18s! But I’ve tried to improve and tried to impress here, and if I get an opportunity, I try to take it.
“I’m just trying to help the team and get the results. It’s been good and the last two games we’ve been a bit more compact. We’ve got the clean sheets and that’s very important for us.
“It (starting against Chelsea) gives me massive confidence. I’ve been training hard and trying to improve throughout the whole season. I’m just trying to get the opportunities and when I get them, play good.”
The Reds swooped in ahead of Manchester United to sign Bajcetic from Celta Viga when he was just 16, in a £224,000 deal that was pushed through before the post-Brexit change in transfer regulations regarding signing players under the age of 18.
Liverpool had been scouting Bajcetic since 2019 prior to his move to Anfield. Even then, he was signed as a defender before the Reds Academy coaches saw something in him to transform him into a midfielder.
Now, he finds himself facing off against the likes of Jorginho and rumoured Liverpool target Mason Mount, while training and playing alongside Thiago, Henderson, and Fabinho. It has been a remarkable rise and Bajectic, who scored his first senior goal against Aston Villa last month prior to making his first Premier League start against Chelsea, is very much enjoying the ride.
“They are top, top players. I know how good they are,” he said of his midfield team-mates. “I learn a lot from them. To feel like I get an opportunity in this team, it gives me massive confidence. It’s amazing.
“It’s been difficult at times, at the beginning. Obviously when you are a centre-back you see all of the pitch but when you are a midfielder, you have people in behind.
“That was tough at first but the coaches in the academy have been teaching me very well. I tried to improve and I’m still improving.”
“They’re (Jorginho and Mount) world class players and it’s very tough to play against them. But I don’t mind who is in front of me, I do the same thing to be fair. I just need to run, get tackles in, win challenges. Yeah, help the team.”
It’s telling that as Bajcetic highlights the attributes he needs to bring to the team, his comments are eerily similar to what Klopp criticised his side for lacking earlier this month when they drew at home with Wolves. Evidently as the Liverpool manager's patience wore thin, this is why the Spain Under-18s international now finds himself a starter.
Making his 10th appearance of the season against Chelsea, such a total is more than the likes of Diogo Jota and Keita, equal to Ibrahima Konate, Curtis Jones, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and only two less than Luis Diaz.
So, already far more than just a highly-rated youngster on Liverpool’s fringes, what advice has Klopp given the teenager as he continues to storm through this previously closed Reds door?
“He always tell me to do what I do in training,” Bajcetic said. “In training, you are more confident because you are not in front of 60,000 people! It sounds small but it makes a difference to tell me that.”
A humble answer, it reiterates that while Bajcetic is very much a man on the pitch, the Reds’ midfield woes have seen Klopp forced to turn to a player who is still just a boy.
Fortunately that boy has had a stable presence alongside him in midfield in compatriot Thiago. The pair’s fathers, Mazinho and Srdan Bajcetic, played together for Celta Vigo in the 90s, but that is not the only thing that connects both players.
“He makes everything a bit easier,” Bajcetic admits. “He talks to me a lot, in Spanish as well. He gives me confidence and is always trying to help me.
“It’s always easier to play alongside him. Both (his experience and speaking Spanish helps). He’s a leader in the team, he’s one of the leaders and as well he speaks Spanish!
“We are from similar cities and from the beginning he has been helping me out. I am very thankful to him for that.”
With Thiago the only senior Liverpool midfielder retaining his place in recent weeks as the Reds sunk to new lows, his Anfield place is clear despite the engine room overhaul planned for the months ahead. Jude Bellingham is the club’s first-choice target, and it will take a club-record fee to lure him away from Borussia Dortmund, but in truth Klopp will need more than just one new midfielder.
But while the England international, still only 19 himself, would be a long-term solution to Liverpool’s woes, they might already have unearthed one possible answer if Bajcetic’s early performances are anything to go by. He’s not just earning admiring glances from inside Anfield after all, having recently been tipped for a Spain Under-21s call-up ahead of next summer’s European Championships.
Yet international aspirations and beyond can wait. In the mean-time, as Liverpool look to rescue their season with this new, unlikely hero at the heart of such efforts, Bajcetic has two very clear targets in mind.
“As a collective, reach the top four if we can,” he said. “Individually, just keep getting minutes and hopefully play my part.”
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