Jurgen Klopp believes Trent Alexander-Arnold has the perfect role model in Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson as he looks to build on last season's remarkable achievements.

The Reds boss insists there is no danger of the teenage full-back resting on his laurels after a campaign when he played in the Champions League final and for England at the World Cup.

Alexander-Arnold was so determined not to miss the start of the season that he returned to training a week early and he was picked ahead of Nathaniel Clyne for the 4-0 thrashing of West Ham.

Klopp says the 19-year-old Academy graduate's exciting talent is matched by his attitude and hunger to keep learning and improving.

“In these situations I'm not a bit in doubt about Trent. I didn't have to tell him to refocus,” Klopp said.

“He's very close with Hendo and that's probably the best advice you can get.

(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

“He's very smart, a very serious football player already. He wants to play, wants to perform, wants to show his best, so there was no need for re-focusing.

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“He was desperate to come back. He struggled in the Napoli game. It was quite funny to see – Trent looked like he had two wooden sticks (for legs)!

“Torino was already much better and then the West Ham game.”

Alexander-Arnold showcased his composure with his mature performances en route to Kiev last season and Klopp was delighted with the manner in which he overcame a tricky start to help create the opening goal against the Hammers at Anfield.

“With the wind behind, his crosses were flying nearly over the stand on the other side, but he stayed cool and then played one of the best passes I saw since I don't know when,” Klopp added.

“It was to Naby (Keita), through all of them pretty much. He was not really an option. It was only because Trent saw this option, saw this possibility, he played it and it was the perfect pass. Two passes after that we scored a goal. That was a big influence.”

Alexander-Arnold is expected to keep his place for Monday night's Premier League trip to Selhurst Park.

Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha caused him problems when the teams last met back in March.

Liverpool had to rally from 1-0 down at the break and ground out a 2-1 win courtesy of goals from Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.

Klopp believes Alexander-Arnold has improved the defensive side of his game and says keeping Zaha quiet has to be a collective effort.

"Zaha is exceptional, that's true. If you leave any full-back alone, nobody's able to defend Zaha, but we will not do that," Klopp said.

(Image: Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images)

"Hopefully we have a lot of big games and in the Premier League already, I cannot see bad wingers.

"Probably when we play Manchester United, Jose Mourinho will think it's a good idea to bring (Marcus) Rashford on that wing because he played pretty well that day.

"It's all part of development. No problem with that. We will not change anything because of an old story last year.

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"Since then, Trent has improved not only one step but I don't know how many steps. That doesn't mean from now on he will only have perfect performances, but it's all part of his development.

"We work on that, we talk the right things about that, but we will not remind him about whatever happened that day."