Ojo and Stewart Ready To Impress

Jürgen Klopp joined Liverpool in October of last year, just in time for the team to experience a huge injury crisis. Player after player went down due to hamstring and knee injuries. With Liverpool fighting battles on four fronts for most of that time, Klopp needed to call on the services of many Academy players to fill the voids left in Liverpool's depleted squad.

Sheyi Ojo and Kevin Stewart are two of the players who stepped up an impressed at that time. Liverpool Academy director Alex Inglethorpe said regarding Ojo and his earlier loan out to Wolves: "That experience at Wolves would have helped him and Sheyi is starting to realise what it will take for him to have an impact on the first team. I really like working with Sheyi and he is someone who I have seen a huge improvement in over the last two to three years. It was fantastic to see him make his Premier League debut and the next challenge for him is to try now to make a Premier League start. He has got a lot of wonderful competition around him and what he has to do is find a way of ticking the next box, which is to start a Premier League game."

A Premier League start may not be in the cards for this season, but there's always the next one to look forward to, and if he continues to develop, the 18-year-old may see some action next season. He's currently playing with the England U19s playing three World Cup qualifiers over the international break.

Kevin Stewart, likewise, made his first team debut this season and subsequently made five appearances for the Reds, including a Premier League appearance when Liverpool trounced Aston Villa 6-0.

About him, Inglethorpe had nothing but praise: "Kevin is obsessive about improving and getting better. Obviously I have known him for a long time now, since I coached him at Tottenham. He has come in and quietly gone about his work. Last year he had a couple of loan spells to get some game time, and he is someone that I think everyone in Kirkby would agree, staff and players, that Kevin probably sets the example in what an Academy day should look like.

"Kevin is first in and last out and sometimes you have to ask him to slow down and rest up a little bit because he is so determined to succeed. For me, Kevin was the example to the rest of the Academy of how you should try to live your life if you are desperate to get where you want to go."

Stewart's injury in mid-February couldn't have come at a worse time for the player, who had seemed comfortable playing with the first team when given the opportunity. He should be back in the next week or so, when Klopp may choose to once again utilize him as a substitute.