Cody Gakpo praises four young Liverpool players vs Brighton

Cody Gakpo talked up his Liverpool teammates after Wednesday's Carabao Cup win over Brighton, reserving special praise for the youngsters in the team.

Arne Slot named a much-changed side for the trip to the AMEX Stadium, with only Andy Robertson, Curtis Jones, and Luis Diaz keeping their place in the team from Sunday's 2-2 draw at Arsenal.

Conor Bradley's return was a welcome one after the Northern Irishman missed the Reds' last three games through injury, while goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros made his first-ever start for the club following on from his substitute appearance against Crystal Palace at the beginning of October.

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Gakpo also name-checked Tyler Morton, who started in midfield, as well as second-half substitute Trey Nyoni. "The young players were very good, very good. Tyler Morton started, he didn’t start that often," Gakpo said.

"Trey [Nyoni] came in late on, and the goalie [Vitezslav Jaros] obviously. I think they did fantastic, so very proud of them as well. Proud of the whole team. It’s not always easy if you don’t play that much and then all of a sudden you need to play a game; for example, Conor [Bradley] was a little bit injured, back directly and playing 90 minutes. Everybody did well so really proud of them and really proud of the team."

Gakpo was Liverpool's most influential attacker against the Seagulls, scoring the first two goals of the game with two powerful strikes from inside the area. However, he was not totally satisfied with his contributions to the game, suggesting he should also have registered an assist.

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Gakpo was presumably referring to a counter-attack around the hour mark when he complicated a three-on-one situation with a bouncing pass to Dominik Szoboszlai when a pass along the ground would have set the Hungarian up for a much easier finish.

Gakpo said: "Overall I think the most important [thing] is that we won here, and that’s what we did. A tough opponent, a lot of quality. But we showed great character today and I think it was a good game to watch. I think [I scored] two good goals, but I think maybe it should have been more or get an assist as well. But at the end, very happy with the goals as well."