Klopp on young players who fade away – ‘That won’t happen with Ben Woodburn’

Ben Woodburn, still 17, and the hero of Wales in the past seven days has returned to Liverpool and the tutelage of Jurgen Klopp.

Liverpool have a fixture frenzy starting on Saturday lunchtime, taking in 4 Premier League games, 2 Champions League games and a League Cup clash - all before we get to October.

But the reds youngster looks set to add to his 9 LFC appearances during that spell with Klopp saying the club will look after him properly.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference the boss said:

“From our point of view, it’s clear. It all depends on the player

He is a really patient boy, that’s really good - not only in the game but around.

He doesn’t expect too much. In the morning he probably has a quick look at his passport,"Oh, look I'm still 17" - he is a fantastic boy. I know the world around is getting more and more crazy and we will help him all we can.

There are so many stories from the past when very young boys showed up and later you didn’t hear anything of them anymore. It will not happen with Ben."

Klopp also revealed the affectionate nickname he had given the player - the 'Prince of Wales'.

With Liverpool's U23's also facing European games thanks to Champions League qualification - Klopp is placed in a quandry with the player.

"I think he is in the best hands here at Liverpool. We will do the right thing - he will play youth, he will play U23s, he will play first-team football. The main message is he needs to play football. He trains with us always and then we will decide each weekend where he can play.

"Our target is that we have him in the first-team because we like him, we see his quality and that's the main thing. But for us it's not too important if it's tomorrow or in a year, it's just important that we can use him then. That's what we try to prepare.

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