After a grueling three-goal comeback midweek against Borussia Dortmund, Jürgen Klopp elected to start a younger squad (except for the 35-year-old Kolo Toure and 29-year-old Lucas at the centre of defence).
Danny Ward (22, goalkeeper), Connor Randall (20, right-back), Brad Smith (22, left-back), Kevin Stewart (22, midfielder), and Sheyi Ojo (18, attacker) all started against Bournemouth as the Reds left the south coast with a 2-1 victory through two first half goals from Roberto Firmino and Daniel Sturridge.
All five young players stayed on the pitch for the full 90 minutes, which was impressive considering we have not seen a few of them play in a while, including Ward, who made his Premier League debut in between the pipes.
Starting the youngsters before or after an important match is a tactic we have seen already from Brendan Rodgers, however Rodgers’ lineups very rarely did well. It’s still early days, but it seems Klopp has already figured it out.
