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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Jurgen Klopp explains why Liverpool included untried youngster in squad for Barcelona

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp sprang a surprise when he named his 23-man squad to face Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals, but Reds supporters had better get used to it.

That because the German says that they'll be seeing an awful lot of Rhian Brewster in 2019/20 - what he calls the young forward's "first real season" in professional football.

The England Under-17 World Cup winner has been a familiar face around the Reds' squad for a while now, but he's still to make a first-team appearance for the club after a serious knee injury wiped out his virtually his entire 2017/18 season.

He recently returned to the Under-23s side, and has now found himself in the 23-man squad going to the Nou Camp.

Brewster boards the flight to Barcelona (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Philippe Coutinho highlights Liverpool danger men to Barcelona teammates

It is highly unlikely that Klopp will name him in the matchday squad, but he explained his reasons for the decision.

"He is the next really exciting prospect. If you see him training… next season will be his season, his first real season," he told the Reds' website .

“He is now physically an adult, he grew a lot, he worked a lot and the training session today was, to be honest, pretty impressive.

“He is with us, he is our player and we want to have him around.

"In this case I thought, ‘Come on, it’s Barcelona , let’s give him a first sniff.’”

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