LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Monday, August 9, 2021: Liverpool's Kaide Gordon during a pre-season friendly match between Liverpool FC and Club Atlético Osasuna at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

LFC assistant reveals phone call to Jurgen: “Wow, we have a new player!”

Kaide Gordon more than caught the eye during his spell with the first team in pre-season and he has assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders speaking glowingly of his talent.

The 16-year-old only arrived at Liverpool in January but had a long list of admirers that spoke volumes of the talent he possesses.

A versatile forward, Gordon assimilated to life at Liverpool first with the academy before being drafted into the first team’s pre-season plans, going on to play 194 minutes across five games.

His place in the squad came thanks to his show of “fire” in training that caught the attention of non-other than Lijnders, who immediately got Jurgen Klopp on the line to tell him: “‘Wow, we have a new player here!'”

The excitement is more than warranted and it was matched by Lijnders’ enthusiasm as he spoke of the teenager ahead of Liverpool’s League Cup tie at Norwich, with Gordon anticipated to play a part.

“Before pre-season we always make sure our biggest talents they start a week earlier than we start so they start with the U23s training,” Lijnders told reporters on Monday.

“I went to the U23s training and I see one player and he has fire in each moment he touched the ball and he always passes players like they’re not standing there.

“So I called Jurgen immediately and ‘Wow, we have a new player here!’

“We took all these young players to pre-season and when you know you have a good player around you is when the senior players start taking care of this young player.

“So when you see James Milner speaking with Kaide, Trent becoming a proper mentor and when you see they invite him to sit at the table.

“And all of our boys invited him in our group and that made it good for him, how to adapt to our team and to our style.

“What you see a lot with these kind of wingers is they can outplay, they can combine and he has a goal in him – he has this natural ability to be in the box, between the goalposts to score.

“Not many talents have this. They may have the dribbling skills but they don’t have this desire to shoot, to come into the box, to score.

“He’s a typical Liverpool Football Club winger, in my opinion. He has goals, speed and we really like him and we are really happy he is with us!”

While Divock Origi, Takumi Minamino and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are vying for positions in attack at Carrow Road, Gordon will certainly come into Klopp’s thinking – on the bench at the very least.

Expectation will rightly remain carefully managed, but the excitement at what Gordon can offer in the future is clear to see – with the youngster in line to be the next to inspire a “whole academy.”

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, September 19, 2021: Liverpool's Academy Director Alex Inglethorpe during the Premier League 2 Division 1 match between Liverpool FC Under-23's and Leeds United AFC Under-23's at the Liverpool Academy. Leeds United won 4-0. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

“I am excited about our academy, there are so many talents! Diamonds! So many special players who just who cannot wait to make their step up,” Lijnders added on the club’s youth pathway.

“It’s so important we keep doing this because with one player we push, we inspire a whole academy so we have to keep this pathway.

“Young players will never let you down, never! They never did and they never will.”

Right-back Conor Bradley could also be in line for his debut against Norwich on Tuesday night.