The 6 Liverpool players who left the pre-season squad after Austria

August 2, 2021
Jack Lusby

Six youngsters have left the Liverpool squad after the first team left Austria for France, with Jurgen Klopp keeping an eye on four others for the rest of pre-season.

The Reds have now settled in Evian following their almost three-week stint in Austria, ahead of two 60-minute friendlies against Italian side Bologna on Thursday.

Klopp has welcomed back Alisson, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino after their post-Copa America holiday, with Xherdan Shaqiri also part of full training and Thiago settling in too.

This increase in numbers has seen others return to Kirkby, however, with assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders confirming that “we had a good meeting with them explaining the decision and looking back.”

It appears as though six of the 10 young players have been cut from the squad, with Ben Woodburn and four other academy players kept around in Evian.

Harvey Davies, Billy Koumetio, Conor Bradley, Tyler Morton, Jake Cain and Mateusz Musialowski were not part of Liverpool’s first session at their new training camp, with the group dropping out to make room for the Brazilian trio.

Morton was the only player to feature regularly throughout the four friendlies so far, with Davies and Musialowski – the latter of whom suffered a minor knee injury – failing to play in any of the warmup games.

Cain, Bradley and Koumetio all clocked under an hour on the pitch each, with fierce competition in midfield and defence keeping him on the periphery.

The manager has clearly taken a liking to left-back Owen Beck, however, as he is part of the four-strong group of youth players retained for the trip across the Alps.

Kaide Gordon is another who has kept his place, having caught the eye in his three appearances so far, along with midfielder Leighton Clarkson and goalkeeper Marcelo Pitaluga.

Clarkson and Pitaluga have trained regularly with the first team over the past year, and as such it is no surprise that they have stayed with the senior players.

Woodburn could have been expected to return to the under-23s having not made it on the pitch yet across friendlies with Wacker Innsbruck, Stuttgart, Mainz and Hertha Berlin, but he also boarded the flight to France.

The only first-team players who are not with the squad in Evian are Jordan Henderson, who won’t return until late next week, and Ben Davies, who has travelled back to the UK.