Liverpool return for pre-season training on July 4 as Jurgen Klopp’s squad begin their preparations for the 2022/23 season. But while Reds stars are now enjoying the final week of their summer holidays, the doors to the AXA Training Centre have already been reopened ahead of the upcoming campaign.
The club’s Under-21s and Under-18s, including new academy player-coach Jay Spearing, reported back for their own pre-season preparations on Monday, a week before their senior counterparts. And for some of Liverpool ’s starlets, the week ahead will present them with a final audition to be promoted to the first team before the season gets underway.
It was this time last year when Kaide Gordon caught the eyes of Reds coaches, with assistant manager Pep Lijnders reporting back for pre-season at the same time as the club’s youngsters to run the rule over who could be of use to Klopp and the first team.
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“About Kaide, before pre-season we always make sure that our biggest talents start a week earlier than we start,” the Dutchman told reporters. “They start with the Under-23s training and I went to the Under-23s training ground to watch and I see one player and he has fire in each moment he touched the ball.
“He passes players like they are not standing there so I call Jurgen like, 'wow, we have a new player here'. We take all these young players to pre-season and you know you have a good player around you is when the senior players start taking care of this young player.
“When you see James Milner speaking with Kaide. When you see Trent becoming a proper mentor. When you see them invite him to sit on the table. All our boys in our group invited him and it made it, not easier, but good for him to adapt to our team and to our style.”
Lijnders continued: “I am excited about our academy. There are so many talents, so many diamonds, so many special players who can’t wait to make their steps. It’s so important we keep doing this because with one player we push, we inspire the whole academy so we have to keep this logic of the inside pathway.
“One, because we win players and second because we become a better team. Young players will never let you down. Never, never. They never did and they never will.”
So which players could find themselves promoted to the first team come July 4 if they impress Lijnders this week? Well, he already hinted who could be involved when speaking back in January.
"This is just my personal opinion, but I think a coach should be judged much more on the young players he brings through,” he said. "I really believe in our project looking at our academy. For example, I spent yesterday morning at the Academy to speak with the coaches and Alex Inglethorpe.
"We look all the time at the Academy. [On Tuesday] our U18s played against Burnley in the FA Youth Cup, we had Bobby Clark, Luke Chambers, Stefan Bajcetic, they all stand out. I hope they come with us during the pre-season because it is important for them to have a proper pre-season to know exactly how we want to do things."
Whether Clark, Chambers and Bajcetic find themselves with Klopp’s first team in the weeks ahead, only time will tell. But having seen Gordon, Owen Beck, Tyler Morton and Conor Bradley all given their maiden call-ups last summer before featuring for Liverpool over the course of the season, the door to the senior set-up is being held open for the next generation to take that next step.
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