Jurgen Klopp was forced to play a number of young players in Liverpool’s recent Premier League match against Luton Town due to injuries to his first-team regulars. They were without Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones for the game at Anfield in addition to the likes of goalkeeper Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai and Thiago Alcantara.
However, the team responded emphatically, coming from a goal down to beat Luton 4-1 on Wednesday. Among the young players that Klopp brought on was striker Jayden Danns, who was making his senior debut. He was brought on in the 89th minute for Luis Diaz. Liverpool ended up scoring the fourth goal after that through Harvey Elliot.
Klopp was all smiles after the full-time whistle went off and gave Danns an especially big hug. Luton Town manager Rob Davis came towards the pair at the same time and could be heard telling Klopp “I played against his dad!” before the Liverpool manager burst out laughing.
Edwards, 41, had played for a number of lower league English clubs, including Wolves and Blackpool and among the plethora of players he faced would have been Danns’s father Neil. The elder Danns is of the same age as Edwards and played for a number of clubs around England.
Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo scored two minutes apart in the second half to open the floodgates as an injury-bitten Liverpool opened some space at the top of the Premier League with a 4-1 comeback victory over Luton Town at Anfield on Wednesday. Klopp’s team have 60 points after 26 games, four points above Manchester City and five clear of Arsenal, although both chasing teams have a game in hand. Luton Town remained in 18th.
“Exceptional game,” Klopp said. “I liked lots of the first half, but I saw that the boys and crowd didn’t like it as much. “I told the boys it was a top game and we have to be calmer in decisive moments, then there were fireworks and wonderful goals — fantastic night and it is just really good.”
Luton’s Chiedozie Ogbene shocked the Anfield faithful with a goal in the 12th minute and Liverpool, who were missing several key players including Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez, trailed at halftime of a home league game for the first time this season. “We made them angry, didn’t we?” said Luton manager Rob Edwards. “The second half we just saw Anfield, full-throttle. We saw Liverpool. They suffocated us and their fans were amazing.”
