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Liverpool Under-23s coach Mike Garrity admitted Rhian Brewster has “bags of potential” after the young striker produced a classy debut in their 3-0 win over Ipswich Town.

The England youth international only turned 17 earlier this month but got his chance for the under-23s at Prenton Park following a prolific run of form for the club’s under-18s.

Brewster justified Garrity’s faith as he caused a stack of problems for the Ipswich backline and bagged the Reds’ second goal in their emphatic Premier League Cup triumph.

“Rhian is a prospect. He has bags of potential and is a good kid,” Garrity told the ECHO.

“I just thought it was the ideal opportunity to throw him in and see what he’s about. We’re delighted that he got his goal. He’s got a real eye for goal.

“He did very well. He’s got a lovely personality and is a great character. He’s a wise old owl (for his age). It’s about getting him working in the right way.

“He’s not trained with us at all but maybe moving forward the plan will be to nudge him towards our training group. He’s still only a first year scholar so we need to take it slowly with him.

“We can’t get too excited. He has to keep his feet on the floor and keep working hard every day. If he does that I’m sure more opportunities will come his way in the future.”

Garrity believes his youngsters benefited from having Joel Matip and Alberto Moreno as part of the starting line up. It was Matip’s first start for six weeks following an ankle injury and his dispute with Cameroon.

“The plan with Joel and Alberto was to play them for 60 minutes and I thought they were terrific,” he added.

“The way they were with the young boys around the dressing room and their professionalism towards the game was first class. You can only learn off playing alongside well established Premier League players.”

Paulo Alves opened the scoring and after Brewster made it 2-0, it was left to Ben Woodburn to complete the scoring late on. Woodburn impressed in a central midfield role.

Garrity said: “Ben’s a good player and in the last half hour his quality really shone through.

“When he was younger he played in midfield a bit so it’s not completely new to him.

(Image: 2017 Liverpool FC)

“We were quite experienced at the start of the game and they were quite young. We scored three and could have had a few more. After the defeat to Manchester United it was nice to bounce back with such a convincing win and performance.”

Liverpool Under-23s striker Brooks Lennon wasn’t involved with the American youngster set to complete a loan move to MLS outfit Real Salt Lake.