Whether Liverpool finish the season winning the quadruple or have to settle for just the League Cup, it has been a good year for the Reds’ academy. 16 players who have come through the club’s ranks have featured for Jurgen Klopp’s side during the current campaign, with seven being handed debuts and two making their first appearances for the German.
Club bosses will be delighted by such a fact and will hope that a handful of them have it in them to follow in Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones’ footsteps and cement their place in the first team in the years ahead. With the highly-rated Kaide Gordon one such youngster to have been handed his debut this year, the early signs are good.
Liverpool haven’t enjoyed such a flurry of talents emerging from their academy since the nineties where Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler opened the door for the likes of Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard to follow. They weren’t the only first-teamers to emerge from the academy at the time though, but while that trio would flourish under the watchful eye of Gerard Houllier, others would depart under the Frenchman having enjoyed less than fruitful relationships with their then-manager.
