Liverpool have a rich tradition of welcoming academy graduates into the first team, and current boss Jurgen Klopp is following Rafa Benitez’s lead in that regard.
Benite gave senior bows to more than a dozen academy players during his time at Anfield, as well as making the most of local heroes Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, who made their debuts before his arrival.
Here’s what has happened to the last 12 academy graduates to play their first Liverpool minutes under the Spaniard.
Jack Robinson
Robinson was the last Liverpool player, academy or not, to be handed a debut by Benitez.
The defender was just 16 when he came on for Ryan Babel in the manager’s final game in charge against Hull in 2010 before playing 10 more times for the Reds.
He joined Sheffield United from Nottingham Forest in January 2020, making it back to the Premier League. United were relegated in 2021, but Robinson remained at the club and made 27 Championship apperances in 2021-22.
Handily, we spoke to him a few years ago about leaving Liverpool.
READ: Jack Robinson on leaving Liverpool, Suarez, Sterling and life at QPR
Dani Pacheco
Earlier in Benitez’s final campaign, he handed a maiden first-team appearance to compatriot Dani Pacheco.
After impressing for the reserves, the forward played six more times that season in a campaign which saw Fernando Torres often absent through injury.
Pacheco was most notably thrown on in a last-ditch attempt to find an elusive third goal in the Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid.
More than a decade on, he’s now in Poland with Gornik Zabrze after spells in Spain and Cyprus.
Nathan Eccleston
When a player is best remembered for a 9/11 conspiracy tweet, it’s generally a sign that his on-pitch contribution wasn’t the best.
Eccleston played nine games for Liverpool, the first of them coming in a League Cup defeat at Arsenal in 2009. He also tweeted: “I aint going to say attack don’t let the media make u believe that was terrorist that did it. #O.T.I.S. [‘Only the Illuminati Succeed’].”
The striker’s run of clubs until drifting away from the game in 2019 was Kilmarnock, Bekescsaba and Nuneaton Town, which reads like a googlewhack.
Dani Ayala
Ayala was on the bench for that Arsenal game but had made his debut earlier in the same season when he replaced Martin Skrtel in a Premier League victory over Spurs, making his first start against Stoke in August 2009.
A centre-back brought over from Sevilla’s academy…
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