InterviewLuca Stephenson on 100 games, captaining Dundee United and summer aims

As loan moves go, Luca Stephenson’s time with Dundee United has gone particularly well.

The Liverpool player is now nearing the end of his second full season at the Scottish Premiership outfit, for whom he has made 66 appearances so far across 2024-25 and 2025-26.

A tally of five goal contributions during campaign one north of the border has increased to nine already in his sophomore year with Jim Goodwin’s team.

And such is Stephenson’s status at Tannadice, he recently captained the club against Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership.

“To be fair, it’s a lot of credit to the gaffer and the confidence he instilled with me from the minute I walked through the door there,” Stephenson told Liverpoolfc.com.

“Last season when I first went in, I had a decent start but made a couple of mistakes.

“I kind of got us knocked out of the cup quarter-final at Motherwell, giving away a penalty, but he stuck with me and the trust he put in me after those games, he didn’t take me out, he just kept me in the team and gave me that confidence.

“When we got to the summer this year and he wanted to take me back, I knew that he could help me take my game another step up again and I knew the trust he would have in me if I kept on putting in the kind of performances.

“I knew it would only be a benefit for me and the kind of environment he’s created within the training ground with all the staff, it’s an enjoyable place for me to play football and learn at such a young age.”

Stephenson arrived at the Reds as an U15 and impressed as he rose through the age ranks, alongside a spell at Barrow in League Two that included 34 games.

His first season at Dundee United saw him named the club’s Young Player of the Season having helped them to a European qualification position.

Versatile enough to be comfortable in a number of different positions in midfield and defence, he also held his own when featuring for Liverpool in pre-season last summer.

With almost another campaign’s worth of professional experience under his belt, you can hear the confidence and self-belief as we catch up over the phone.

“I think I’ve done really well on a personal level, to be fair,” he said. “Obviously the team has struggled in parts this year for kind of different reasons – new squad, younger squad, a little bit inexperienced at times.

“But on a personal level, I think I’ve had another really good year, racked the games up and I have contributed more goals and assists than I did last year, obviously with still games to go.

“I think I’ve added more quality, really, this year and added more to my game and more to the team than I did last year, which is really positive on a personal level.

“It was really good to be named captain. That’s another one of what I kind of alluded to earlier in terms of the trust and the faith that the manager’s put into me really.

“It was quite a big moment, to be fair. Obviously we have a captain and a vice-captain but they were both on the bench for that game and then he said to me before the game that I was going to lead the team out. I was made up with that.

“I think I’ve got the character for it – I try to lead whether I’m captain or not and I try to kind of set the standards and all that stuff.

“So yeah, I was made up with that. And I think it’s just a really good kind of milestone for where I’m at.”

Speaking of milestones, between this interview taking place and this article being published, Stephenson is no longer ‘just shy of 100 games’.

He reached that professional landmark on Sunday and toasted it with an assist as the Tangerines defeated Celtic 2-0.

Stephenson is in regular contact with Liverpool as his parent club monitors his form and physical performance in collaboration with Dundee United.

The Reds’ head of loan management, Gary Probert, meanwhile, headed to eastern Scotland recently for a personal check-in with Stephenson.

While every individual’s pathway is different, in his own case the 22-year-old could not be happier with the decision to head out on loan.

“Obviously the ideal plan is always to just get straight into Liverpool’s first team, isn’t it?” he reflected.

“And go from the Academy and straight into the first team and kind of go and do what Curtis Jones has done and those types of people where you can just go straight from there and straight into the first team.

“But there’s also a route into the first team via going out on loan. I think you’ll never quite get what it’s like to play for Liverpool out on loan because of how massive the club is.

“But I think you can get a lot more learnings from being out on loan and understanding the meaning of how it is to play for three points every week where there’s people’s jobs on the line and there’s three points on the line that means everything to everybody every weekend.

“You only get that feeling of losing games, of winning games when you’re out on a loan. As good as the Academy is and the U21s is, you can’t replicate that in that set-up.

“And to have the few years I have done of kind of the ups and downs and the learnings with it, has been unbelievable.”

As mentioned earlier, Stephenson wants to squeeze everything he can out of the last weeks of his current term with Dundee United.

But what are his plans beyond? And does he anticipate an increased opportunity to make a mark back at Liverpool in pre-season, with a number of players set to be away at the World Cup?

“Obviously you can’t predict what’s around the corner, especially in football – it’s a weird sport at times,” he replies.

“I’ve got seven games left here now. Just keep on adding as many games that I can, goals, assists and hopefully wins for the team here. Take a nice little break in the summer and then try to come back and hit the ground running in pre-season and see where that takes me.

“There’s going to be a big number of first-team lads that are going to be away at the World Cup.

“The chances of going away to America [for pre-season] might increase and maybe the number of minutes might increase than what I might have had in the past couple of years while I’ve been away.

“If I’m lucky enough to get that opportunity then absolutely brilliant, yeah, and I’ll have felt like I’ve earned this from my hard work again this season.”