Inside how Liverpool find their uncut gems and their incredible scouting reports

You've heard of the Busby Babes… now meet the Kindergarten Kop. Or Jurgen Klopp’s Kirkby Kids, maybe Xabi Alonso’s Adolescents next season. Whatever alliteration we want to force, the point is that Liverpool’s youth academy is thriving like few others in Europe.

Amid 10 first-team injuries for Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Luton, the substitutes’ bench featured five teenagers and the eight outfielders had an average age of 21, boosted significantly by poor old Andy Robertson, 29, and Kostas Tsimikas, 27, who must have felt like pensioners.

Both of those left backs still have plenty of elite-level football ahead of them but the pair, along with many in the best XI, know there is a cabal of youngsters waiting in reserve to take their spots. Some, like Conor Bradley and Jarell Quansah, have already nailed down regular action.

In an FA Cup match last month, Liverpool’s matchday squad was made up of 10 academy graduates. No, it was not a cup tie against a lower-league opposition where rotation was a luxury. It was a trip to Arsenal.

‘Nothing would be possible without these boys,’ said Klopp last month when quizzed on Bradley, Quansah and Co. And he is right, these players aren’t just knocking about to make up the numbers, they are full-fledged members of Liverpool’s fight for a 20th English league title.

So while the likes of Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah may sweep up football’s Oscars in May for playing the role of lead actors in Liverpool’s fight for four trophies this season, this young, ensemble support cast should be highly commended, too.

Jayden Danns, the 18-year-old son of former Premier League midfielder Neil, is the latest debutant for the first team, coming off the bench alongside Bobby Clark and James