Liverpool have appointed Vitor Matos to their backroom staff, recruiting the 31-year-old from Porto as the club's new elite development coach.
He fills the role vacated by Pepijn Lijnders who stepped up to become Jurgen Klopp's assistant following the departure of Zeljko Buvac.
Matos was working as assistant coach of Porto's B team in what was his second spell with the Portuguese giants following two years in China on the staff at Shandong Lueng.
He will be tasked with working with the Reds' youngsters at Melwood.
“We’ve worked for a while on it," Klopp said. "We had the idea that it makes real sense because we have so many outstanding, young boys.
“The situation is a little bit like this: if you are in pre-season, they are with us and we need them for training, for the games and all that stuff. But then the season starts and all the big guns come back and we don’t want to give them the feeling they are now a bit further away again.
“So we thought it made sense that they really get their specific coach again what Pep did years ago when I came in. I loved the fact I got a sensational assistant manager, but we lost the development coach a little bit.
“We had to fill that void and we’ve done that with a really great guy, an outstanding coach. Young and experienced, you don’t get that a lot. A kind of guy who is used to having six or seven sessions a day.
“He is smart, his English is very good – which is obviously important – and he has worked at different clubs, but is educated at Porto, which is good for us because Pep is from there as well.
“He had made his own experience already and now we can all get the benefit of that. It will be great for the boys 100 per cent.
“We have to introduce him to the boys, but he will do that today.”
