Ahead of weekend clash, Klopp marvels at Chelsea's youngsters

Chelsea's youthful promise under Frank Lampard puts Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp in mind of his old Borussia Dortmund team.

Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham

Jurgen Klopp believes Chelsea youngsters Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount can already be bracketed as £60million players.

Liverpool travels to face Frank Lampard's side on Sunday at Stamford Bridge, where there is an air of positivity despite some mixed results at the start of the season.

Confronted by a transfer ban, Lampard has given youth its head, with playmaker Mount pushing on to make his England debut and striker Abraham enjoying a prolific run of form.

Speaking ahead of the match, Klopp told reporters he recognises some of the attributes in a youthful Chelsea side that helped his Borussia Dortmund team claim back-to-back Bundesliga titles at the start of the decade.

"It's a really exciting team. It reminds me a bit of my team at Dortmund years back, when they were really young – even younger than this team now at Chelsea," he said.

"People talked about how young they were but they only played because they were that good, not because they were that young.

"They brought in Christian Pulisic in the summer for 50-or-60million and all the players around him have the same value.

"Tammy Abraham is now a 60million player, Mason Mount for sure 60million - if not more, [Callum] Hudson-Odoi was [worth] that already."

 

Abraham followed back-to-back braces against Norwich City and Sheffield United with a hat-trick in last weekend's 5-2 win at Wolves.

He is now aiming to become the second player in Premier League history after ex-Liverpool favourite Luis Suarez to score at least twice in four consecutive games.

Klopp feels the 21-year-old's loan spells at Swansea City and Aston Villa have paid dividends, with Mount's excellent form on the back of a year at Derby County also vindicating this aspect of Chelsea's approach.

"If there is one club in the world who a transfer ban didn't hit that bad, it was probably Chelsea because of the transfer policy they did in the last few years with all these high-quality players out there on loan," he said.

"Tammy Abraham scored 20-something goals last year. It's not that he learnt where the goal is at Chelsea, he found it in different places already.

"They are a proper contender for pretty much everything."

A 1-0 Champions League defeat to Valencia in midweek and an ankle injury scare for Mount checked Lampard's progress but Klopp – whose Premier League leader was also beaten at Napoli on Tuesday – feels the ex-England midfield boasts clear coaching potential.

"He's done really well but it’s difficult to say. I don’t think it’s my job to talk about other managers, really," he added.

"What I can say is they play really exciting football. They played the last two games with a different system in a very busy period of the year, so that's interesting.

"He has an exciting football team – young, but really good.

"I said it before and probably people think I say it because I'm polite. It's not polite, it’s the truth – he did an outstanding job at Derby so I'm not surprised he's doing a good job at Chelsea as well."