Liverpool chief scout Eduardo Macia has nominated local pair Stephen Darby and Jay Spearing as among those to watch for the future.

Macia told liverpoolfc.tv: "Now we are building for the future here. We've brought in a lot of young players in the last few years. Guys who are 16, 17, 18 years old and they all have the mentality we want. That's why they won the reserve league last season.

"We know they can still improve as players, but they have the right mentality. Guys like Nemeth, San Jose, Bruna, Spearing, Darby, Insua, Gulacsi... Now we are hoping to add more players to that quality. It's a young side, in Spain it would be described as a B team. The idea is to provide first team players for the future so that when they are 20, 21, 22 they are ready for the Premier League."

He added: "The idea is that in the future we will be bringing through enough players for the first team that the manager might only need to buy one or two players every summer."