Charlie Adam raves about three Liverpool teenagers after friendly victory

Charlie Adam heaped praise on three Liverpool youngsters after their opening pre-season victory of the summer.

The Reds delivered a 4-2 triumph over Karlsruher as part of their training camp in Germany. Diogo Jota fired a stoppage-time double to give Jurgen Klopp's side the win, with Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo also on target at the BBBank WildPark.

Klopp named two different line-ups for either half against the 2. Bundesliga outfit. In the second period, the exciting Ben Doak, 17, featured on the right flank and impressed.

Meanwhile, 18-year-old duo James McConnell and Calum Scanlon featured in midfield for Liverpool as they were handed their unofficial debuts.

And Adam, speaking to LFC TV, reckons that Klopp will be delight with how the fledgling talents performed. The former Reds midfielder said: “All in all, it's four goals, three different scorers - strikers scoring goals which always helps. What you were up against was a good workout and it will build the lads for the next game.

“If Jurgen strips all that, the biggest thing for him will be the young kids and the personality they showed. The performance of the three lads Doak, McConnell and Scanlon in the second half, I thought it was good.

“When you put them in that environment, you see how they handle it with the first-team players and I thought that they coped really well with it.”

Liverpool took the lead after just three minutes through Nunez’s finish. But they were pegged back before half-time when Lars Stindl crashed home an unstoppable volley.

Then Karlsruher edged in front in the 48th minute through Sebastian Jung. But the Reds dominated the game afterwards, with Gakpo levelling smartly on 70 minutes before Jota’s quickfire brace in the dying embers gave Klopp’s men a first win of the summer.

On the victory, former Liverpool striker Neil Mellor said: “The first pre-season game, the fans will want to win, the players will want to win. But it's about getting minutes under the belt.

“He changed the line-up in the second half and we saw a lot of good football. Liverpool dominated the game. At 2-2, if you saw the scoreline but didn't see the game, you'd be thinking it was close but it wasn't - Liverpool dominated and were much the better side. The scoreline reflects the dominance.”