Jurgen Klopp has hailed the 'exceptional' rise of young talent Rhys Williams after his breakthrough into the Liverpool first team.
The Reds boss also name-checked elite development coach Vitor Matos as a key figure in developing the 19-year-old and recommending him for the main squad.
Williams came off the bench to replace the injured Fabinho and played an hour of the 2-0 win against Midtjylland in the Champions League on Tuesday.
And given the number of defenders currently sidelined, Kopites could be seeing a lot more of the starlet soon.
Asked about Williams in his press conference today, Klopp said: "I cannot say too much about his progress in the last few years, to be 100% honest.
"But I can say a lot about his progress in the last few weeks or months since he is with us [in first team training].
"This is pretty exceptional. But he was already a really good kid when he arrived here.
"The situation was one of the benefits of having Vitor Matos in the coaching staff.
"He made us aware of [Williams] and said 'he is really good, take him in training' so that's what we did. He looked good!"
The Reds face West Ham in a 5.30pm kick off at Anfield tomorrow evening.
Fabinho will be missing, with Joel Matip also unlikely to feature and Virgil van Dijk a long-term absentee.
That means Rhys Williams could potentially be in line for a Premier League start alongside Joe Gomez.
But Klopp indicated that his centre-back options stretch beyond Williams, as he referenced two more defenders eyeing up game time.
Who would you start at the back tomorrow? Have your say in the comments.
He added: "We still have Billy the kid [Koumetio] and Nat Phillips as well.
"Billy was not available for some reasons in the last 10/12 days but he's now back.
"They all train with us, they are all with us and now we have to make decisions."
