Jurgen Klopp hails Liverpool talents after Carabao Cup final win

Jurgen Klopp wanted to talk about the Liverpool youngsters and not himself after his injury-hit side’s heroic Carabao Cup final victory over Chelsea at Wembley, Ian Doyle reports for The Echo.

Jurgen Klopp admits his success at Liverpool is a complete one-off and is convinced the club is in safe hands due to their “absolutely insane” next generation.

Virgil van Dijk’s dramatic 118th-minute winner earned an injury-ravaged side a 1-0 victory over Chelsea in the Sunday Carabao Cup final at Wembley.

It was an eighth trophy as Reds manager for Klopp, who announced last month he would depart at the end of the season after approaching nine months in charge.

And the manager believes the Anfield support – more than 32,000 traveled south – remains the club’s lifeblood.

“I couldn’t care less about my legacy,” said Klopp. “I’m not here to create one. As a football club manager, I am there to do the job. Nothing we’ve done in the last eight or nine years is replaceable; we couldn’t have done the same at another club.

“It was precisely made for this combination. It is fantastic. We learned so much in that time, the people learned so much.

“That’s the one thing – it’s not a problem if a manager leaves. If these people would leave, our supporters, that would be a problem. As long as they are the way they are, Liverpool Football Club will be fine, and that’s the most important thing.”

The absence of 11 senior players, which became 12 when Ryan Gravenberch was forced off with an ankle complaint early on, meant Liverpool had to turn to their Academy players with teenagers Bobby Clark, James McConnell, and Jayden Danns along with 21-year-old Jarell Quansah all coming off the bench.

And Klopp said: “Age is not at all in our thought process at that moment. We knew who we would take and had to build a squad. Yesterday in training, it was clear these are the boys we could take.

“We needed fresh legs. That was clear. You can always think about who you take off, and it’s sometimes the wrong one. But we had to make changes.

“The development of Bobby Clark. Oops. That’s wild, I have to say. The development of James McConnell is insane. Jayden Danns only recently joined us in first-team training, and I loved him from first to second; he was special. He comes on today and could have scored two goals in a Carabao Cup final. It’s wild.

“The other kids were there who we could have brought on in (Lewis) Koumas and Trey (Nyoni), some we left at home like Kaide (Gordon). The way the experienced group involves them is pretty special. It was wonderful.”

Klopp also joked at spotting Dominik Szoboszlai and Darwin Nunez, who were among the injured players, joining the post-match festivities.

“Some weren’t allowed to come here from our squad, but so many were involved in the celebrations,” he said.”  “Darwin and Dom are not fit at the moment, and that’s why they didn’t play, but the celebration looked at 100%; let me put it like this. So we will have to talk about that with the medical department.”

“But it is a super special night for this group and the club.”

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