Jurgen Klopp insists none of the youngsters on the fringes of Liverpool’s first team will follow Rhian Brewster in making a January loan move.
Brewster has joined Swansea for the remainder of the campaign, after making just three appearances for the senior side in the first half of the season.
The striker is expected to challenge for a starting role up front for Steve Cooper’s side, who are battling for promotion from the Championship, linking up with his former England under-17s manager.
It is seen as the ideal move for Brewster, but Klopp believes the rest of his young talents—including Curtis Jones, Neco Williams and Harvey Elliott—should stay on Merseyside.
“You can send them out to another club and you hope they can get some games under their belt,” he said.
“But they have games. They have games in the under-23s, and they have outstandingly high-quality training sessions here.
“So we make decisions person-by-person, player-by-player, and don’t say ‘they all go out on loan’ or whatever, or ‘they all stay here’.
“For Rhian, it was the right thing to do in this moment, we all agreed it was the right thing to do.
“That’s important as well. He needs to find a manager, the boys need to find a manager, in the best possible way who knows them already.
“That’s the case with Steve and Rhian, so that helped a lot.
“Swansea and Steve Cooper were asking already in the summer if he can go, and it was not the right moment.
“He came out of a long-term injury, so I thought he needed to just get a rhythm, get used to his body again, his body needed to get used to the intensity.
“Now he’s already training for a long, long period, and so it was a good moment to give him on loan and to help Swansea as well, and hopefully Swansea can help Rhian and then us.
“So that was good, but for the others I don’t see in this moment anybody who would benefit more from a loan spell than from staying with us.”
Along with Brewster, both Herbie Kane and Isaac Christie-Davies have already embarked on loan moves this January, and it is likely that others in the academy ranks could head out too.
Unlike Jones, Williams and Elliott, one player to start in Sunday’s 1-0 win over Everton in the FA Cup who could still leave is Nat Phillips, who filled in at centre-back after being recalled from a spell with Stuttgart.
Asked if the 22-year-old could return to the 2.Bundesliga club, Klopp confirmed he would “probably go back.”
“It was just nice to have him around again, because he’s such an exceptional person,” he said.
“He had a lot of interesting experiences in the city where I was born; I know the people there, they can be kind of strange!
“So that helps him a lot. He will probably go back, but we will have to see. But yes, probably.”
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