Jurgen Klopp cannot criticise youngsters after defeat to Union Saint Gilloise

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp insists he will not judge any of his young players on their performance in the 2-1 Europa League dead-rubber defeat to Union Saint Gilloise in Brussels.

Klopp's team was the youngest in their history by some considerable margin to play a European game with an average age of just 21.9 years and six players aged 20 or under and that showed against the Belgian league leaders.

One of those 20-year-olds Jarell Quansah, who has already made 12 appearances this season, cancelled out Mohammed Amoura’s opener with his first senior goal but Cameron Puertas put the hosts ahead again at the end of an understandably disjointed first half.

Klopp took responsibility for the nature of the performance and absolved his youngsters of any blame.

"I mixed up the team completely, so I think the changes we made, the amount of changes, were too much for rhythm," he said.

"I would never judge a player after a game like this and say, 'OK, he’s obviously not good enough’ or whatever.

"I know how good they are because I see them every day in training and tonight is an important experience.

"I don’t think any career ever started without these kind of games where you have to struggle, where you have to fight through, where you have to survive.

"For some it was a really important experience and for others good for rhythm. I saw good performances.

"Of course as a team it is not a fair assessment if I say now they are top of the table in Belgium and we come here, bring kids – altogether that’s really difficult – but I thought we gave it a go and that’s OK for me.

"Nobody got hurt, nobody is injured, so we recover, go home and go again."

Joel Matip’s surgery this week on an ACL injury leaves Klopp trying to find the most suitable