Jurgen KIopp praises Liverpool youngster Nico Williams after first Premier League start

Jurgen Klopp insisted he "liked a lot" of Neco Williams’ first Premier League start for Liverpool as he explained the reason behind the defender’s half-time withdrawal against Brighton.

Given his full debut in the English top-flight at the Amex Stadium on Wednesday evening, the Welshman lasted just 45 minutes before he was replaced by Andy Robertson.

However, speaking after the Reds earned a hard-fought 3-1 victory, Klopp revealed that the substitution was not a reflection on the teenager’s performance.

He told Sky Sports: “I know football is like this, if you take a player off after 45 minutes then everybody thinks that it’s not good for the player.

“Actually, I don’t care about this, it was just that he had a yellow card and the situation on that side was that we didn’t protect him well enough - one or two times they could really go through there.

“Neco, it’s his first professional game, I cannot tell him don’t do a challenge anymore. So that was the reason, the only reason, and we could bring Robbo.

“I liked a lot; you could see he’s confident and all that stuff. He had two situations - the yellow card and the other foul situation, he will learn that it’s absolutely no problem. I liked a lot how he played.”

Liverpool took just eight minutes to carve out a two-goal lead as they capitalised on trademark pressing situations in advanced positions to score.

Asked if that was the plan from the off against a Brighton side renowned for their passing, Klppp added: “Of course it is, not a lot of teams do it against us. Usually, they shoot - and Brighton stopped it then as well - the ball long.

“That’s all okay, but then you have to be there for second balls and all these things. We don’t have real influence on what the other team is doing, we have to react.

“For their playing build-up, we had a super solution, I liked how we did it. For all the rest, they left two kind-of-offensive players between the lines when they won the ball and it was difficult to protect that.

“We did really well in most of the situations but, when you lose the ball in the wrong moment, then they have an advantage.

“That’s where they had the two chances and that’s where they scored the goal as well.”

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