It's fair to say that Jurgen Klopp loves Gabriel Martinelli. The Arsenal winger enjoyed an impressive performance against Klopp's Liverpool side on Wednesday night, although he had little to show for his efforts in the end.
Martinelli was the man of the match in football.london's player ratings, terrorising Trent Alexander-Arnold and giving the England man a tough night. But ultimately Alexander-Arnold had the last laugh, with Liverpool winning the match 2-0 thanks to goals from Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino.
Martinelli had a number of chances, seeing one effort go agonisingly past the far post late on - had it gone in it would have given Arsenal hope of grabbing an unlikely point. The Brazilian youngster was one of a number who could leave the Emirates Stadium with their heads held high though.
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And Klopp was full of praise for the young man once again. The German has previously lauded Martinelli, calling him the "talent of the century".
After an incredible 5-5 Carabao Cup draw in 2019, Klopp said of Martinelli: "Martinelli’s pretty much the same age [as Liverpool defender Sepp Van De Berg] but he’s a talent of the century, he’s an incredible striker, so it’s really difficult. It was not in this game only. I watch a lot of football, so I saw the Europa League games of Arsenal.
"He’s 18 years old, right? So our scouting department is all over the world and stuff like this, but I think Edu gets all the credit for that signing – he came from… wherever. He’s really unbelievable. So young, looks so mature already, is a proper threat. Yeah, he looks like a really decent player. I didn’t want to put any backpack [pressure] on his back with this thing [his earlier remarks] but I just really like good football players and obviously he’s a very good one."
And Klopp could not help but speak highly of the Brazilian frontman once more after Liverpool's 2-0 Premier League win on Wednesday night, albeit in a staunch defence of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
He said: "Apart from the diagonal balls to Martinelli which Trent defended incredibly, the boy Martinelli is such a talented boy, really tricky and if anybody says Trent can't defend they can come to me and I will knock them down because I cannot hear that anymore, I don't know what the boy has to do!"
