Klopp name-checks two Liverpool starlets after youngsters impress vs Toulouse
Jurgen Klopp used his post-match press conference following the 5-1 demolition of Toulouse to highlight the potential of Liverpool hotshots Ben Doak and Bobby Clark.
The Reds turned in a highly impressive performance against their Ligue 1 opponents in the Europa League on Thursday night and were rewarded with a glut of goals. Wataru Endo, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez all found the target to put Liverpool in command at the break before Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah compounded Toulouse's misery late on.
Klopp rang the changes against the French cup winners, with eight alterations to the team that won the Merseyside derby last weekend. Teenager Luke Chambers, making his first start for the club, was one of those changes while fellow youngsters Callum Scanlon and James McConnell also got minutes at Anfield.
But it was Doak and Clark - two names who have already been mentioned this term - who were singled out after the match by Klopp, who seemed to allude that the duo have already been earmarked for big things.
When he was asked about the inclusion of several youngsters, the German explained: "It was more that we thought the boys really needed that now. I can tell them how much I like them, but then from time to time, we have to show it. In good moments, you can give the boys opportunities. They all took it.
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"Ben Doak would have had minutes for sure tonight. Bobby Clark is coming back from injury [too]. We have a lot of good boys and we trust them."
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Liverpool youngster Ben Doak and his teammate, Bobby Clark, were both talked up by Jurgen Klopp despite missing the 5-1 win over Toulouse (Nigel Keene/ProSports/REX/Shutterstock)Doak, 17, joined Liverpool from Celtic back in the summer of 2022, whilst Clark, 18, spent time in the youth ranks of Birmingham and Newcastle before making the switch to Anfield in 2021.
The Europa League has been a platform for Klopp to give minutes to some of the Reds' burgeoning young talents this term, with Doak in particular catching the eye against LASK earlier in the campaign - so much so that Klopp bemoaned the fact he wasn't given the ball more often.
Speaking after the 3-1 win, Klopp said: "Oh yes, we have some young players who can achieve a lot more, oh yeah. I said I know that people expect us to fly through this competition. It will not happen.
"In the group stage it will not happen, in the knockout it will not happen. We have to dig in, dig into it. That’s what we did tonight, the opponent suffered much less than us, from the bad pitch than we did.
"We had to get used to it, so we can learn so much. If we could have used Ben Doak a little more often, give him the ball a little more, then he could have had more even times on the touchline to cause problems."
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