Jurgen Klopp has fielded 37 players so far this season as Liverpool’s pursuit for an unprecedented quadruple goes on. From that total, captain Jordan Henderson has made the most appearances, featuring 40 times during the current campaign.
At the other end of the spectrum, five players have featured just once this year for the Reds as the German continues to make full use of his squad as well as hand the next generation breakthrough minutes.
From that quintet, Melkamu Frauendorf was handed his debut most recently, at home to Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup back in January when coming on as a substitute, while James Norris came on alongside the German for his first appearance under Klopp’s watchful eye in the same game. Meanwhile, Billy Koumetio made his first start for Liverpool the month before against Leicester City in the League Cup in their thrilling win one penalties after fighting out a 3-3 draw.
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Third-choice goalkeeper Adrian made his only appearance of the season so far in the same competition, starting away at Preston last October in the absence of Caoimhin Kelleher. But there was one player in the starting XI alongside the Spaniard at Deepdale that night, as the Reds ran out 2-0 winners, whose inclusion was perhaps the most-surprising of the campaign. And none more so than to the player themselves.
The inclusion of Harvey Blair in the Liverpool side to face the Lilywhites certainly set tongues wagging, with the 18-year-old yet to even make an Under-23s debut when he was handed that senior call-up by Klopp, having seen a long-term hamstring injury derail his 2020/21 campaign.
And his journey to Deepdale actually began with the teenager thinking he had been denied a possible Under-23s debut, not even contemplating the possibility of a senior call-up as a result.
"It was Thursday and I was meant to be playing with the U23s against Blackburn," he recalled. "One of my teammates texted me and he was like, 'It's just been put in the U23s group, how come you're not in the team?' I was thinking, 'How come I'm not in the U23s team?' I didn't think anything of it.
"Then (U23s analyst) Ray Shearwood called me and said, 'You're not going to be involved in the game with the U23s because Jurgen wants you to be up there to train.'
"We trained on the Monday and I did really well. I was playing right wing and I was doing really well, had a really good session. The next day, the day before the game, everyone was back and I just thought I was going to do rondos with the players that wouldn't be playing in the game, like Virgil and Salah. But then I got called over and was told, 'No, no, you're over here.'
"I was thinking, 'I'm starting – what?! This is crazy.' I didn't expect it all. It was crazy and it all went so fast. By the time I knew it, I was in the hotel before the game and just waiting for the kick-off. It was crazy.
"I was so nervous and everything was coming on top of me. I was just like, 'I'm actually going to play for Liverpool, my team.' It was such a crazy moment."
Inevitably a bag of nerves, fortunately for Blair he had one of the most experienced players in English football around to offer some words of wisdom and calm his nerves in Liverpool vice-captain James Milner.
Although not in the squad that night, the veteran was present at Deepdale and told the youngster: “Be yourself, express yourself because I know how good you are. Do everything you've been doing in training with us.”
Blair hasn’t featured for the first team since starting against Preston, instead enjoying an impressive season at Under-18s level. The winger has scoring eight goals for Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s side including three in his last two appearances against Everton and Manchester United.
Yet that doesn’t mean he’s out of Klopp’s thoughts, having been name-checked by his manager following the Reds’ League Cup final win over Chelsea. And having played his small part in Liverpool’s successful cup run, the teenager admits his debut against Preston was something of a learning curve but has made him hungry for more.
"When I was going into this season, all I was thinking about was just playing as many games as possible, and whatever comes, comes," he told Liverpoolfc.com . "Everything seems to be going so well but I just need to keep pushing and try to get out there more and keep playing.
"The difference is crazy. In U18s football, I get pushed over and it's a foul. I was getting pushed over and, even though some of them were questionable and maybe should have been fouls, I wasn't getting any fouls.
"Obviously I wasn't getting on the ball as much, and that was also the first time for me playing on the right side. Throughout the U18s, I was playing on the left the whole time.
"It was very difficult to get me on the ball and me being able to express myself.
"I couldn't sleep at all afterwards. I was up all night. Even when I was getting back on to the coach just before we're leaving the ground, I saw some of my mates in the crowd and they're all smiling and videoing. I was just like, 'Wow, this is just crazy.' There were thousands of people.
"This is what I've been working for my whole life and it's all come true. Hopefully moments like that can happen again."
