Jurgen Klopp to hand Liverpool FA Youth Cup youth stars pre-season opportunity

Bobby Duncan and Paul Glatzel will have a chance to impress
Liverpool FC via Getty Images
David Lynch10 July 2019

Jurgen Klopp has revealed that FA Youth Cup-winning stars Bobby Duncan and Paul Glatzel have a big role to play during Liverpool’s pre-season campaign.

The Reds’ U18s secured the trophy for the first time since 2007 as they beat Manchester City on penalties in the final following a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Campus in late April.

Duncan and Glatzel were responsible for 13 of the goals scored by Barry Lewtas’ side during that run, underlining their status as potential future first-teamers at Anfield.

And the prolific duo will get a further chance to stake their claim this summer as they fill in for the senior players who have yet to return from their post-season break.

Klopp told the club's website: “I would say it’s quite difficult to immediately be part of that first-team squad because we are really strong, but it’s always like it is.

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“These boys are our future if they want to be our future. That’s how it is because for that they need to take all the steps.

“They are at a wonderful club with wonderful coaches. Whoever leads the training, whether it’s me or Pep [Lijnders] or Critch [Neil Critchley] or whoever, it will always be a good session. But this pre-season is for them exciting of course.

“A lot of them will be part of the US tour, we have to use that because of the number of games we play. We need all of them and that’s nice. Only as an example, Bobby Duncan and Paul Glatzel: our offensive line that played last year is coming pretty late in joining us in the pre-season, so we have to be creative system-wise and all that stuff, but there will be moments when they have to play.

“Not only at Tranmere or whatever, but in America as well when we play Borussia Dortmund and all the other guys. So, it’s good and it’s always like this: when you are already in the club, then the door is always open for you to the first team.

“The thing is you have to go through by yourself - we only open the door, we don’t push you through. So, I’m open, I’m very open for exciting football players and if the boys show up, good for them and good for us.”

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Klopp also explained that he is likely to be able to afford opportunities to some of his young goalkeeping options during pre-season, even with Simon Mignolet returning this week.

He added: “We struggle with goalkeepers at the moment, we have a very young group here.

“Ali won the Copa America title at the weekend, he will not be involved! Simon comes back and I think he will be fine to play. Caoimhin [Kelleher] is injured and that will take a little while, Kamil Grabara will come back a little bit later but has a bit of pain after the U21s [European Championship] as well.

AFP/Getty Images

“So it will be interesting, maybe the subs at least will be very, very young, even the goalkeepers, but that’s how it is. Problems in football are only there to find a solution and in pre-season you have a lot of problems and always try to find the solution, so we will do our best.”

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