Jurgen Klopp hailed Liverpool’s academy graduates as his side beat Norwich City 5-2 in an entertaining FA Cup contest at Anfield.
It was a memorable afternoon for the Liverpool academy as several homegrown stars shone, with teenager James McConnell setting up fellow academy graduate Curtis Jones for the opener, on his first senior start.
Ben Gibson headed in an equaliser for Norwich against the run of play, but Darwin Nunez restored the Reds’ advantage with a composed finish. Diogo Jota continued his fine form with fantastic finish to make it three, and substitute Virgil van Dijk headed in a fourth from a set piece.
Norwich scored a second after a spectacular effort from Borja Sainz, before Liverpool wrapped up their win in stoppage time through Ryan Gravenberch’s close-range header.
“Good game, cup game, Norwich had their moments and scored wonderful goals but they did well,” Klopp reflected to ITV.
“Their second goal was exceptional, really good finish. Our goals were wonderful, we played well from the beginning. Four of our five goals were set up by academy graduates which was really cool so only positives from the game.”
Klopp opened up on the impact of the club’s academy graduates, with Curtis Jones continuing his strong recent form and Conor Bradley and James McConnell recording assists in impressive individual outings.
“Curtis is in a great moment for us, super important in different departments. He’s a very good player but he is a role model as well coming up through the academy.
“All of our guys coming up through the academy are good guys who can play football. If Curtis Jones can learn defending, everyone can learn defending. Offensive play, this high press which he is setting for us. If he can do it everybody can do it and you see that James [McConnell] played a super game today, you see it with all the kids, Bobby [Clark] when we brought him on recently. It’s the same. They are all really good footballers. they make these steps and Curtis shows how it goes so I am really happy about that.”
Klopp received a rapturous welcome at Anfield after it was announced the German will step down from his role as Liverpool manager at the end of the season.
On the reception, he added: “It was great for the fans to show their love to me and we need an atmosphere on the pitch. We need the crowd and for them not to think about the manager. We need to forget it for a while and go for each opponent like crazy and that’s what we want to do and the next chance is on Wednesday.”
