1 year ago
179 Liverpool are in Carabao Cup action on Wednesday night, entering the competition at the third-round stage.
The Reds are flying high at present, sitting second in the Premier League table and with three points from three in the Europa League.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp doesn’t shy away from utilising academy talents and fringe players in the early stages of cup competitions.
This will likely be the case on Wednesday night as the Reds host Championship leaders Leicester at Anfield.
We’re likely to see two players who have been listed among the best youngsters in world football take to the pitch.
One of those is Ben Doak, who has made a huge impact for Liverpool since joining from Celtic last year.
The other is Stefan Bajcetic, who has already clocked up 20 competitive senior appearances for the Reds.
Bajcetic, who turns 19 in October, made the Goal.com NxGn 2023 list alongside Doak.
He impressed after breaking into the team and enjoying an extended run at the start of the year.
“Since he started playing for us, he’s been our best player,” Salah said back in February.
Sadly, Bajcetic suffered an injury last season that halted his momentum, ruling him out until the summer.
This season, the 18-year-old has made one Liverpool appearance, playing at right-back against LASK in the Europa.
‘Proper, proper talent’
Pep Lijnders, speaking to the Reds media team at his pre-match presser, suggested that Bajcetic at RB is only temporary.
“Stefan is this player last year who, from a coach’s point of view, played on the six and was just exciting because he plays passes and dictates the game in a different way than say Alexis or other midfielders we had,” he said.
“He is this proper, proper talent, so you want to see him in the middle of the pitch. It would not make sense to just play him at right-back and use him as a right-back.
“It’s not easy to find the right player if Joe or Trent can’t play, but we need to find solutions as well because Stefan is coming back from a long-term injury so it is not possible for him to play constantly.
“We need to find solutions in that position. It is good that Trent is training, yesterday he was on the pitch.
“It is good how Joe is performing and it is nice for Stefan to play a game there, but it was his first game there. He played a lot of times centre-half but not full-back.”
If the Reds opt not to risk Trent Alexander-Arnold from the off, we could well see Bajcetic on display again, albeit at right-back.
Nonetheless, as he gets more used to that position, he’ll no doubt before more and more of a handful for opponents.
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