Liverpool boss singled out Harvey Elliott for praise following a 3-0 defeat to French side Strasbourg.
The 19-year-old has featured regularly throughout pre-season and helped Liverpool win the Community Shield on Saturday, coming off the bench to see out the last 17 minutes of normal time.
Elliott was limited to 11 appearances across all competitions last term after suffering a nightmare ankle injury which ruled him out for a large part of the season.
But it appears the winger will play a larger role in 2022-23 as Liverpool look to build on their domestic cup double and attempt to regain the Premier League trophy from , who secured the last title by a single point.
He played 90 minutes as the Reds lost to Ligue 1 team Strasbourg on Sunday, who won 3-0 thanks to goals from Adrien Thomasson – who bagged two – and Habib Diallo.
Klopp revealed after the game that he was not surprised following a glowing performance from Elliott.
‘We are not surprised about that, we know Harvey now for a long time and he improves every day and that’s really important,’ he told .
‘But what you could see today, he could do that after 88 minutes and you saw yesterday a very intense game where we were all struggling, and Harvey didn’t look like he struggled at all today physically.
‘That he’s a good footballer, it’s clear. But a player like Harvey needs target players as well and that’s what we were lacking today.’
He added: ‘In England, with the [U21] system, they play pretty much without crowds and competition – you cannot learn to deal with these kind of things.
‘Today we could give the boys the opportunity to deal with these kind of things. Now they know it, how it feels, now they can use it the next time and that’s very, very helpful in their development.’
, .
,  and .
