Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has sent a clear message to young defender Neco Williams over his future.
It seems pretty obvious that Klopp is not keen to send the Wales international out on loan at the moment, even if he’s not had much playing time at Anfield for a while now.
Williams faces plenty of competition for a place in this Liverpool side, and Klopp insists that’s just part of being at a club like Liverpool.
Speaking at his press conference, as quoted by the Daily Mirror, the German tactician said: “We are really short of players. The last thing I’m thinking about is who could go on loan in the winter.
“In Neco’s case, I can 100 percent understand that my colleague from Wales [Page] said he thinks it would make sense that they play.
“But they are nearly qualified or can qualify for the World Cup with a lot of players who are not first choice in their teams.
“Just going on loan, you never know where they will end up – not Neco, but in general.
“First and foremost you have to make sure you fight where you are, because if you don’t sort your problems where you are, you will carry them with you to the next club as well.
“I’ve said before, it’s not easy to be first-choice player constantly at Liverpool, we have a really strong squad.
“But Neco is developing, Neco is improving, and that’s why Neco could play how he played for Wales. Not only against Belgium, but as well against Belgium. That’s it.”
The message to Williams seems very much to be that he should stay and fight for his place, rather than just looking for any loan move that offers him more playing time.
It will be interesting to see how the player himself responds to this, with the 20-year-old surely not likely to have completely unlimited patience on this issue.
Williams has played well at international level and seems like he could make an impact for a number of Premier League clubs, so he’ll surely want something to change pretty soon.