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Liverpool’s first team may have recently moved to their new £ 50 million training ground at the Academy site in Kirkby.
But already the next generation is making its own move towards the senior configuration.
Such was overwhelming proof that Jurgen Klopp’s young contingent helped the Reds secure advancement to the knockout stages of the Champions League with a game to spare.
The narrow but well-deserved victory over Ajax at Anfield was largely due to the combination of a 19-year-old duo at one end of the pitch and the intervention of a European rookie at the other.
When Curtis Jones deftly pushed through Neco Williams’ center shortly before time, it was the first time the teens had combined for a Liverpool goal in competition.
And with surprising starter Caoimhin Kelleher, instead of paralyzed Alisson Becker, magnificently saving at the end of Ajax substitute Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to preserve his clean sheet, the misstep here last week against Atalanta became irrelevant.
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With Klopp’s views on the schedule well known, that Liverpool will travel next week to face FC Midtjylland as the Group D winner, thanks to Atalanta’s draw against the Danes on Tuesday night, he gives the Reds coach the opportunity to rest some players.
Not that there has been much room for rotation, such have been the injuries that have seriously compromised his options for much of the season and brought Academy players to the fore.
How they have responded. And the final whistle came, the opening trio had been joined by Rhys Williams, another who had made the most of his surprise opportunity.
That it was Jones who proved that the winner of the match was apt given the way he performed in midfield with a maturity beyond his tender years.
And Neco Williams fully deserved the bear hug he received from Klopp after responding to a difficult week with an increasingly impressive display as a right-back. The Welshman is clearly made of hard material.
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With next Wednesday’s last group game now a dead rubber, players like Jake Cain and Leighton Clarkson could almost certainly see first-team action.
Klopp won’t think twice. He knows that the children are more than fine.
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