Liverpool U21 coach Barry Lewtas wars delighted with the senior players in their EFL Trophy defeat at Rochdale.

Arthur Melo played for an hour, while Stefan Bajcetic also featured.

Due to international call-ups for a number of young players, Lewtas had to experiment at the back with midfielders Luca Stephenson and James McConnell filling in at centre-back and right-back respectively.

"I thought Stefan was excellent," Lewtas said. "As a number six, we were able to play through him, I thought we built really well.

"Obviously Arthur and Stefan will grab the headlines but Dominic Corness wasn't the weak link in there.

"We had three ball-playing midfielders, and Dominic dropping to the sides – I thought he was superb. He was at the hub of how we built and from a midfield point of view, we were really good."

On Arthur, he also told the club's website: "He wants to get fit, he doesn't need a week off, so it's come from him.

"He doesn't speak Scouse and I don't speak Portuguese, but I think you can tell from the body language. In the meetings we went through some extra things and cleared a few things up. He has embraced it.

"He first trained with us on Friday. He trained with the first team and then he had a session with us for the team that was going to play against Leicester.

"He'll do a little work with us during the international break."