'The door is open for him' - Klopp on Curtis Jones' role in LFC squad
Curtis Jones' eye-catching performances mean Jürgen Klopp is now looking to use him in matches 'as often as possible'.
The 19-year-old Scouser has produced five goals in his 16 appearances with the Reds' senior side after making a debut in January 2019.
Two from that tally came on Thursday night when Jones displayed his fearlessness by curling in a pair of fine efforts against Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup, claiming the Man of the Match award as a result.
Asked about the No.17's confident demeanour, Klopp said: "Self-confidence for a football player is really important because usually you play in front of 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 thousand people and without confidence that's not possible, I can tell you. Yes, it helps.
"Doing the right thing in the right moments helps as well. That's what he had to learn in the last few years because he was absolutely exceptional and maybe the top player of each age group he was in.
"[That] means he had to learn to play together with other players – he made massive steps in that department. He had brilliant role models in this squad.
"And now, the door is open. I don't want to make the performance smaller than it was because it's absolutely exceptional. The way he scores, the way he contributes to the game, that's all really exceptional.
"But Curtis knows himself there's a lot of space for improvement, like being in a game really over 90 minutes, really being involved – not only on the pitch and these kind of things.
"There's space for improvement. It's good."
In order to fulfil his potential, Jones works closely at Melwood with Vitor Matos, Liverpool's elite development coach.
Klopp continued: "He's a hard-working boy, so he loves all this feedback, all the information we give him, all the analysis we do.
"He's in the best hands with Vitor Matos, all the young boys are. I'm the manager but Vitor is their coach really.
"They are part of our training obviously but you cannot analyse every day each player and give them the feedback. But the few young boys we have, we can do that and so Vitor is really on that.
"A really good situation in the moment and the plan is to use him as often as possible because of the way he performs."