Ben Woodburn knocked Michael Owen from his perch as Liverpool's youngest ever goalscorer on Tuesday night.
The 17-year-old came off the bench to replace Kevin Stewart with just over 30 minutes remaining in the League Cup quarter-final between Liverpool and Leeds. At 17 years and 45 days, Woodburn beat Owen's record by 98 days.
On just his second appearance for the club - his first was at the weekend against Sunderland - Woodburn scored in front of the Kop in the 81st minute to put Liverpool ahead 2-0.
After the game, Jurgen Klopp was keen to keep Woodburn's feet on the ground. He told the player that at nearly 50-years-old, he could have scored the goal.
First of all I said to him: ‘Well done, but it was not too difficult – I would have scored too.’ That is maybe the truth. Nothing we say here is important enough that it would help Ben Woodburn or myself.
We know how to handle the situation. I know I can say to you whatever I want but, if he scores goals, it’s very difficult to stay cool from your side. Tonight it was very important that we could have him on the bench and bring him into the game because of our situation in the offensive department, so he was a very important player for us and he scored a goal which makes it much more enjoyable.
Klopp also said that he was aware of the need to protect Woodburn - especially from the media.
It’s all good. We know what Ben is capable of and what he is already able to do. My first job is to help these boys to be the best, in this case Ben Woodburn. There is a lot to do, especially to keep the public away for as long as possible. That is quite a difficult thing to do but on the other side we only brought him on because we want to use him so that means when he is on the pitch he is absolutely allowed to score goals, to prepare situations and to make crosses like Trent [Alexander-Arnold] did, for example. It is all good.
I am really happy for him. The only problem is that I am a little bit afraid of you all [in the media]. That is the thing why I am so quiet. Maybe you can just write ‘goalscorer: Ben Woodburn’, and nothing else. That is quite a challenge. I heard he made history, Milly [James Milner] was the youngest goalscorer for Leeds, so he can still have a decent career.
