Liverpool: Striker's new contract; Defender on Klopp's radar; key man showdown talks

By grvadmin

The Anfield faithful have to be pleased with the start their side have made to the current campaign. Klopp’s men went to The Emirates Stadium on the opening day and won, and just a week ago they backed that huge victory up with another equally impressive away display; as they took all three points off Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. On top of that, work is clearly continuing behind the scenes.

Klopp is a firm believer in giving youth a chance and sticking with them if they do well, and one academy player has made his first steps towards making it into the first-team recently. Starlet Liam Millar has put pen to paper on a new, professional contract with Liverpool, the club have announced.

Millar, who turned 17 yesterday is highly thought of by the youth coaches and backed that up with a stunning hat-trick on his U18 debut against Blackburn Rovers early on in the season. Although it’ll likely be a while before we see him compete at the highest level, this is a name that we should remember for the future.

One area that must be of slight concern for the German manager is defence. The Red Men have a tendency to leak a goal at the back here and there, but it looks as though Liverpool are looking to make that right. Kop Talk say that Klopp is monitoring the situation of Burnley centre-half Michael Keane.

In recent weeks, the Englishman has attracted interest from Chelsea as well, which goes to show just how highly regarded the 23-year-old is. There may be a stumbling block, however, as he has a big Manchester United background and this is likely a move he wouldn’t be all that keen on.

All managers like to send a strong statement out to the players to assert their dominance and command of the dressing room, and it looks as though Jurgen Klopp has sent out his message. At the weekend he dropped Simon Mignolet from the first-team as Loris Karius returned to full fitness.

After their 5-1 victory away at Hull City, the Liverpool manager revealed that he is prepared for talks with the Belgian shot-stopper about the whole situation.

“Like I said a few times, before the game there is only the decision. After the game if someone wants to talk about it we can talk about it, but before the game nothing else than the game.

“If he wants to talk we can talk, there’s no problem, but it will be not a problem because I know him. We cannot promise line up positions. We can only say we made decisions, use them.”

It has always seemed like the former Borussia Dortmund manager hasn’t been all that convinced by Mignolet, and has left him out at the first realistic opportunity. Karius did pretty well during his debut, but bigger tests are certainly ahead.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by Paul Vause.