Liverpool vs Red Star Belgrade: Could an Academy debut be on the cards?

Liverpool could hand a debut to Academy product Curtis Jones following injuries to Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita.

Youngster Curtis Jones has been called up to first team training, said James Pearce, and could feature from the bench against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Thankfully James Milner and Gini Wijnaldum are both available for the clash, as is Sadio Mane, which looks set to be played out in front of a capacity Anfield.

Jones is just 17-years-old, but is highly rated by those at Melwood and quickly rose through the U18 and U23 ranks with Liverpool. He can play further up the field or influence proceedings from a more withdrawn position, but it’s his ability to score goals that most catches the eye.

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp gave Jones a good chance to impress during preseason, and there is no doubt that he managed to do so.

With Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez handed opportunities ahead of their senior colleagues, Klopp isn’t afraid to give youth a chance if they deserve it. Alexander-Arnold is a true Red and a dyed-in-the-wold Scouser, getting a second local lad into the squad would be wonderful to see.

Injuries to key players might be bad, and you definitely don’t want to bring a long sicklist to each game – but when they present chances like this to young talents they need to be viewed with a pinch of salt.

But it’s not only Jones who could benefit from Henderson and Keita missing out. Fabinho looks set to finalize his adaptation to Merseyside by starting the game against Red Star, said the Guardian.

Klopp is never one to rush players into the side when they’re not ready, and commented that the Brazilian’s more withdrawn nature may have worked against him in this instance. Encouragingly, the boss compared Fabinho to Andrew Robertson. How we hope he can have the same impact.