Teenage striker Brewster is spot on for Reds in friendly loss
Teenage striker Rhian Brewster was pleased simply to be involved, as well as scoring a penalty, despite Liverpool’s 3-2 friendly defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the United States.
The 19-year-old converted from the spot late in the game on Friday, with Harry Wilson having earlier scored as well for the European champions.
But goals from Paco Alcacer, Thomas Delaney and Jacob Bruun Larsen gave the Bundesliga side the victory.
Liverpool were without Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Allison due to their respective summer commitments with their national sides in the African Cup of Nations and Copa America, thus giving Brewster the chance to get some first time experience as a second-half substitute.
He said: “It’s good to score again but it’s just good to get more minutes and get fitter and fitter each time.”
Brewster admitted he was surprised to be asked to take the penalty by captain Jordan Henderson, with regular spot-kick taker James Milner off the field, but he was happy to step up.
“It’s really nice for them to think that and it gave me confidence to go and take the pen,” he said.
“I’m sure if Millie was on the pitch he would have taken it. It’s good that they’ve got faith in me and luckily enough I put it away.”
Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, admitted it had been a tough test for his youthful side and acknowledged there was work to be done ahead of the Community Shield on August 4 against Manchester City.
“It was a very difficult game for both teams,” Klopp said afterwards. “I saw a lot of good things, and a lot of good individual performances, but obviously not enough.”
Klopp went on to say that there were parts of the display that had bothered him, but he was confident they would be resolved when the squad is back to full strength and before their bid to win the Premier League for the first time in 30 years begins against Norwich City on August 9.
“There were a lot of good things, some things which I didn’t like, that’s normal in pre-season,” the German said.
“I decide what we do in training and I know how much we did yesterday in already pretty warm weather conditions.
“I still don’t like what I see in the game very often in the pre-season but I know the reason for it.
“I’m not over the moon when I think about our performance but I know there’s a lot to come and it’s all OK.”
Dortmund are Klopp’s former employers and he said he was impressed by what he saw of the German side.
“It is pretty impressive what they do,” he said. “They had a lot of solutions tonight line-upwise. It is a really nice squad.”
Liverpool face Spanish side Sevilla today at Boston’s Fenway Park baseball stadium in the second game of their threematch US tour.