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Jurgen Klopp believes the manner in which Liverpool’s youngsters have stepped up this summer is testament to the work of the club’s Academy staff.

Teenagers Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ovie Ejaria and Ben Woodburn all enhanced their reputations with some accomplished performances after being promoted to the first-team squad during the Reds’ pre-season schedule. Sheyi Ojo also kicked on after making the breakthrough in the second half of last season.

Previous Liverpool managers have sought to overhaul the club’s Kirkby base and bring in their own staff, but Klopp has kept faith with Academy director Alex Inglethorpe, as well as coaches like Michael Beale (under-23s) and Neil Critchley (under-18s).

The German says the calibre of the talent emerging from the Academy underlines why he felt a change in Academy personnel this summer wasn’t required.

“I only change things where I know about a situation. I’d never change just for change,” Klopp told the ECHO.

“I’ve had a lot of good talks with the guys at the Academy. Alex Inglethorpe does a brilliant job there.

“Pep Lijnders is our Academy guy if you like on the first-team staff. There’s a perfect relationship with the Academy.

“There is absolutely no reason to change things. It’s not about changing people, it’s sometimes about changing a situation. How can we build an even better situation for them?”

Klopp handed debuts to Ryan Kent, Kevin Stewart, Danny Ward, Ojo, Connor Randall and Joe Maguire last season. He also gave opportunities to the likes of Cameron Brannagan, Pedro Chirivella and Brad Smith, who has subsequently joined Bournemouth in a £6million deal.

The Reds boss has a track record for developing young talent and he’s working closely with the Academy staff in a bid to ensure the number of kids knocking on the first-team door continues to grow.

“Last season we had Ojo, Brannagan, Randall, Smith, Stewart and Chirivella who played in real games for the first-team,” Klopp said.

“We’ve had Ben Woodburn, Ovie Ejaria and Trent playing for us in the friendly games. Shamal George has been in a good way too.

“That’s eight or nine. What do we want? We want 20 of this quality.

“It’s a big number of players. We have to create better situations to make them better.

“The Academy has done well to bring them to this level. I don’t know whether we could have done it better but I know that they’ve done a good job.

“We have to keep working on the things we can make better but that doesn’t mean changing people.”

Supporters want to see Scousers making that leap from Kirkby to Melwood and Klopp shares that desire. Alexander-Arnold, a 17-year-old from West Derby, has put himself in contention for a first-team debut over the coming months with his efforts in pre-season.

Klopp said: “Trent is a real Scouser, right?

“First of all it’s about football. It certainly makes sense that we have a big number of English players.

“And if there’s a player who is a Scouser and can play football then we should go for him 100%. But it’s not the first thing we should think about.”

Klopp included four more Academy players in his squad for Sunday’s final friendly at Mainz. Striker Toni Gomes and defender Sam Hart got their first senior run-outs, while Maguire and Irish keeper Caoimhin Kelleher were unused substitutes.

There’s a clear pathway through to the first team and that’s a huge source of motivation for both Academy players and staff alike as they enter the 2016/17 campaign.

“That’s how it should be. They need to know about the possibility,” Klopp said.

“To say it is one thing, to show it is completely different.

“These guys know now that if they improve and make the next steps then they will have a real future here.

“Even when they don’t have a future here, Liverpool has to create a situation where players who don’t progress to play in the first-team, get to play minimum in the Championship and have the potential to play in the Premier League. The Championship is an unbelievable league with intense football.

“It’s not that we have 20 players in one age group and 15 of them are only going to be able to play in League Two.

“It’s our responsibility to help the boys. We judge them. They stay here because they are good but we have to help them go on to have a real career, whether that’s at Liverpool or somewhere else.”