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Brendan Rodgers says the Europa League could give an opportunity for Liverpool’s rising young stars to force their way into the first team picture next season - if the club do miss out on the holy grail of Champions League football.

The Ulsterman has made it clear his team will fight to the end in pursuit of the top four but they remain four points behind Manchester United despite Louis Van Gaal’s team losing at home to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday evening.

Liverpool closed the gap with their 2-1 home defeat of QPR but the most likely scenario remains Liverpool having to settle for the often frustrating demands of Thursday night European football next season.

Many supporters indeed would shed no tears if Liverpool missed out on the Europa places – something unlikely after Southampton’s weekend defeat – but Rodgers is aware of the potential benefits of the competition in blooding his young talent.

Already this season, Jordan Williams has made his debut in the Capital One Cup along with the currently sidelined Jordan Rossiter while U21 captain Cameron Brannagan has recently been among the first team squad.

Among those who could be hoping for a potential breakthrough next year include Harry Wilson, Sheyi Ojo, Jerome Sinclair and Thursday’s two goal hero in the mini-derby, 18-year-old Ryan Kent.

Rodgers said: “Ryan is a young player who has done really, really well of late and he’s really maturing into a real talent.

“If you go back to my first year here when we were in the Europa League it was in that competition that we found some of our young players. I gave a lot of them the opportunity, a chance for the likes of Raheem and Andre Wisdom and young Suso, and in the end we finished on the top of that group with 10 points.

“So yeah it will be an opportunity for young players I’m sure and a competition that we will want to do well in.”

Former Academy graduate Neil Mellor used his ECHO column last week to urge Liverpool to use the Europa League as a chance for their younger players to gain valuable experience.

Mellor said: “The Europa League is a much-maligned competition, in many ways, but for Liverpool’s youngsters it could be the most important thing in the world.

“For me, it is the best place for a club to blood its young players. And every U21 player at Liverpool should be looking at next season and thinking ‘that’s my chance’.

“Look at what Spurs have managed to do with the likes of Harry Kane, Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb.

“There’s no reason a Ryan Kent, a Sheyi Ojo, or one of the other clutch of talented teenagers at Anfield can’t do something similar.”