Jürgen Klopp impressed by teenage debutant | OneFootball

With Dejan Lovren injured within six minutes at Molineux, Jürgen Klopp turned to a 16-year-old defender.

Ki-Jana Hoever became Liverpool’s third youngest player ever on Monday evening and did his reputation no harm in the 2-1 defeat.

Signed from Ajax in September, Hoever turns 17 in just over a week. The youngster became the club’s youngest ever player in the FA Cup and Klopp was pleased with his performance.

“He is one for the future of course, but what we will do with him now I don’t know,” the German told reporters after the game.

Injuries to Joël Matip and Joe Gomez have given Hoever a chance and, given how he performed on Monday, he may feature again before the season is over.

“He is 16, turns 17 in a few days,” Klopp said.

“If Joel and Joe would have been fit all of the time, then probably Ki-Jana wouldn’t have been in training with the first team, but he was in and is still in.

“It is just a joy to watch him. He is an incredible, confident young fella and is really a good player on top of that. It’s nice we can see him day in, day out. It’s really cool.”

Having replaced the injured Lovren against Wolves, Hoever could even be in the Liverpool squad for the Premier League game against Brighton at the weekend.