Jurgen Klopp has heaped praise on Liverpool's youngsters for their performance in the 4-1 thrashing of AC Milan in the Dubai Super Cup.
Goals from Mohamed Salah, Thiago Alcantara and a brace from Darwin Nunez saw the Reds claim victory over the Italian champions, just days after faltering to a 3-1 defeat to French side Lyon.
The win over the Rossoneri was the perfect preparation for the resumption of club football, which sees Liverpool travel to rivals Manchester City next Thursday in a huge test in the defence of their their Carabao Cup crown. Klopp's men will then travel to Aston Villa on Boxing Day for their first Premier League fixture in six weeks.
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Eighteen-year-old Stefan Bajcetic enjoyed a fine audition for a starting role at the Etihad as he starred in midfield against Milan alongside Harvey Elliott and the scorer of the Reds' second goal, Thiago. But there were also late, eye-catching cameos from 17-year-olds Ben Doak and Bobby Clark, with the duo both claiming assists for Darwin Nunez, which the Liverpool boss claimed was " so important".
"It was a really good game," said Klopp. "There was one situation which I didn't like – that was when we conceded the goal because it was directly after a drinks break. With the system they played, we avoided pretty much or denied all the switches. In that moment, we didn't deny the switch and then it was difficult and they could score.
"We played a really good game. I liked how our midfield was connected, I liked our build-up because they surprised us a little bit with the system – I'm not sure they played it very often but because of their problems what they have with injuries they changed.
"So building up with three, we needed to adapt a little bit. When we did that, pressing was really good as well."
Reds manager Klopp added: "Of course, when you bring on the kids in the second half and you see the pass from Bobby Clark and the whole performance from Stefan, the performance from Mel [Frauendorf] as a right full-back and then Ben Doak comes on, 17 years old, and is this kind of natural force, it's really cool to see.
"In these 10 days the kids especially, everybody made a real step forward. That's why these things are so important, that we can involve them. And in general, tonight was the result of the last 10 days what we saw in training and tonight we could bring it on the pitch, which is obviously nice."
In total, Klopp named 13 players from the club's academy in his 33-man squad for the training camp in the Middle East and hopes the impressive performances from the selected prodigies will inspire their fellow scholars into believing there is a realistic pathway to first-team football at Anfield.
"It's absolutely cool," said Klopp on Doak, Bajcetic and Clark. "I'm not sure the Academy could watch the game tonight but when you see these boys and performing in a game like this, it's cool.
"It's a real physical game, adult football is a physical game and the boys need to make these steps so they can get ready for it step by step.
"How I said, the physical part will come but until you are that strong, you can create a lot of ideas, you can do things a bit smarter. And when you see what Bobby did with the pass for Darwin... and then Darwin scores twice, so really nice obviously."
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