Jurgen Klopp has spoken about his excitement around the development of Neco Williams after the 19-year-old penned a new long-term deal with Liverpool.
Williams made 11 appearances in the first-team last season, making his debut in October, and picked up winner's medals in both the Premier League and FIFA Club World Cup.
The defender will now be looking to continue his development under Klopp, who has made it clear he has big plans for the teenager this season.
Speaking at the club's training camp in Austria, he hinted that Williams will continue to get opportunities in the side as an understudy to Trent Alexander-Arnold.
“I think Neco is – how young players are – they are kind of ‘projects’. I don’t want to use that word, but with my English I don’t have a better one. There is a lot of work to do, but there is already a lot of skills and potential there and that makes it so exciting," he told the club's official website.
“Neco from the first day he trained with us, he trained like a machine. Every day he became better and better and better and I thought, ‘OK, what’s that?!’
"Unfortunately then, in the moment he started playing for us, I saw it, he got a little physical knock, like it was always really intense all of the time. But then he had to play.
“The last game of the season against Newcastle is a really good example – first half, struggled slightly, [but] second half he was there.
“That’s exactly him in the moment and there is so much positivity about this kid that I am really happy we have him here. That’s very important for me because he is our boy and it is the perfect place for him in the moment because we don’t rush his career.
“We want to prepare him for his career, yes, and in his position in which he will probably play, there is a really, really good player in that position. But Trent cannot – and should not and never did – play 500 games a season, so we need to have options there. Neco is as close as possible for his age group.
“He has a lot of things that we really like, so I am really, really happy that he signed this contract.”
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