Jurgen Klopp hints at Liverpool lineup plans for Europa League
Jurgen Klopp has revealed he plans to field 'a top team' in the Europa League, as well in the Premier League this season, insisting Liverpool will not use the competition to be 'experimental'.
The Reds kick off their European campaign away to LASK on Thursday, having started the domestic season strongly.
Klopp's side have won four from five in the Premier League in 2023/24, as they aim to – at the very least – regain Champions League football for next year.
Many had expected Klopp to use the Europa League – which Liverpool are competing in for the first time since losing the 2015/16 final – as a testing ground for some of their up-and-coming youngsters, with many fans keen to see more of teenage talents such as Ben Doak and Bobby Clark. However, the Reds boss has played down talk that the tournament will be treated as a sandbox.
READ MORE: Liverpool academy stars who could break through in 2023/24
"If there will be kids involved that depends on the level the kids can show in that moment," Klopp told TNT Sports. "We have real talent there, but it is not experimental. I think if we don't get hit by an injury crisis then we should have enough players to field Thursday and Sunday a top team, and that's pretty much the idea.
"Then we will see how we build a squad. I didn't think about that yet to be honest because these kind of long-term plans in football make absolutely no sense because you can kick them in the bin pretty much the second after you had them, for whatever reason.
"So we will see, but we have good kids. That's the benefit of the [recent] international break, when you have all these kids in training. We had 16-year-old boys here, and they are incredibly good, incredibly talented.
"I can't wait for them, but now in the moment we leave them where they are, they shall develop and all these kinds of things.
"But there a few good players out there in the academy and for all the Liverpool supporters out there, I'm pretty sure the future's bright."
Liverpool go into the 2023/24 Europa League as the team with the highest UEFA coefficient and are the early favourites to lift the trophy in Dublin next May. Klopp acknowledged Liverpool's status, but insisted he is taking nothing for granted.
"First and foremost, I think we all have to make sure that we all respect the competition in the right manner, that we respect the opponents in the right manner," Klopp said.
READ MORE: LASK vs Liverpool – Match Preview
"Wherever we go it will be a massive game for the teams, everybody who comes to Anfield it will be a massive game. In the [UEFA] Champions League [it was] the same but it will be here as well, and we have to be 100 per cent ready for that.
"We want to go as far as somehow possible. I would love to go to the final, obviously, but I have no clue if we can reach that because there will be a lot of fantastic football teams in between us and that target, so we have to make sure we perform."
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