news-engine

Josh Abe has rejoined the Liverpool U21s squad after the pre-season tour of the United States, and the 16-year-old scored on his unofficial debut on Saturday. Abe featured twice on Liverpool’s tour of America, coming off the bench against Sunderland before starting in the 1-0 win over Wrexham in New York. But with Andoni Iraola welcoming back a host of other senior players ahead of the final warmup friendlies against Monaco and Como, the teenage winger was among those to drop out. He has instead resumed training with the U21s ahead of a campaign in which he is expected to play a key role for Rob Page’s side. Saturday saw the U21s play out a 2-2 friendly draw with Huddersfield at the AXA Training Centre and Abe featured for the first time at that level. It saw him score the second goal for the young Reds, with Josh Sonni-Lambie also rejoining the U21s to assist his fellow forward. Ollie O’Connor opened the scoring in a dominant start for Liverpool, while Keyrol Figueroa and centre-backs Prince Cisse and Noah Adekoya went close to adding more. But Luke Schofield’s equaliser and Jamie Spencer’s free-kick put Huddersfield 2-1 up at half-time, with Bailey Hall – another from the USA tour – denying Spencer again before the break. Abe was introduced from the bench in the second half and produced an outstanding effort to evade two defenders before firing in to make it 2-2. Joe Bradshaw, DJ Esdaille, Ben Trueman and Michael Laffey were among the others to feature but it appears as though three others cut from the tour squad were not involved. U21s trio could rejoin Liverpool squad vs. Monaco Mor Talla Ndiaye, Calum Scanlon and Will Wright were back in U21s training this week but could now rejoin the senior squad for their friendly against Monaco on Sunday. Ndiaye’s possible involvement would come with Ronald Araujo yet to complete his loan move from Barcelona and doubts still lingering over Jeremy Jacquet‘s fitness. If Jacquet is not able to feature, as is expected, that would leave Virgil van Dijk, Ifeanyi Ndukwe and left-back Luke Chambers as Liverpool’s other centre-back options. Iraola is likely to name his strongest possible side for the visit of Ligue 1 side Monaco, with Van Dijk, Alisson and Cody Gakpo all in contention for the first time.