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Liverpool No2 Linders puts Kelleher, Doak on notice for Leicester Cup clash

Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders says tomorrow's Carabao Cup tie with Leicester City is a good chance for their fringe players.

Lijnders says goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher will get a fresh chance.

The Dutchman said, "He has a long-term contract. For me he could play in any Premier League team. He is a world-class goalkeeper and needs game time and it is a good thing he stayed with us.

"We just are really happy he is with us because you want each position with two top ones. And top ones who can play in any game. We can put him in and the game will not change a lot. We are happy he is with us and hopefully that stays for a long time.

"It depends how players train and act in the room. You never get guaranteed games. You have to see that every training [session] is the last one of your life. If they show this, the door is open for them. We are so lucky that Premier League managers are not looking at our training! He has this talent to surprise and in training, [he does things and] you think 'how is that even possible?'"

Lijnders also discussed 17-year-old attacker Ben Doak, who signed a new long-term contract with the club last week: "He is young so a lot of things can happen. I have the privilege to grow up in Holland and we have this culture of tactical approach and the idea of having the wingers on the outside to disorganise the oppositions.

"This is what you guys still know, [Marc] Overmars and Arjen Robben. We have this culture of wingers and if you get a young winger from Scotland who has this capacity to create and reach the final line, it is nice to see. He comes into a squad with so many senior players and he will never make a side-step. The boys will tell him.

"He has this great, great low gravity where he can control the ball better and [at] the highest speed with his left and right foot. He needs to mature, he needs to listen to Robbo, to Salah and all these guys who are trying to help him. We as a club, for young players I think it is nice for them to be in our squad.

"It is good for younger players to have older players with this hunger and they can mentor them. Every good team has this balance of young talent and this core group of Trent, Diogo, Cody. And then seniors like Virgil van Dijk, Salah, Robbo, Alisson. That combination is what we always had and that's how we want to construct the squad."

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