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Liverpool news: Xherdan Shaqiri makes Ki-Jana Hoever claim Reds fans will love
LIVERPOOL midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri has praised 16-year-old Ki-Jana Hoever following his impressive debut for the Reds.
The Liverpool youngster came on in the sixth minute for the injured Dejan Lovren in Liverpool's 2-1 loss to Wolves on Monday.
“He is very nice,” Shaqiri said of Hoever, who became the Reds' youngest ever player with his appearance.
“He is still very young, you see that on the pitch also.
“He came on and he tried everything. He is going to be a very good player in the future."
Rafael Camacho and Curtis Jones also started the match at Wolves as Liverpool gave youth a chance.
And Shaqiri also insisted the Reds were unlucky to be dumped out of the FA Cup.
Jurgen Klopp’s side lost 2-1 at Molineux and were disappointing throughout.
But Shaqiri feels Liverpool did deserve to get something out of the match against their Premier League opponents.
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“Of course, we are disappointed after this game because we lost, first of all, but I think we didn't deserve this result because we tried to play football,” he told the club's website.
“We tried to come back. We tried everything until the end and you cannot say the attitude wasn't there until the last minute - we tried everything.
“Sometimes you need luck also and the free-kick was very unlucky. I saw the ball inside already, but it never went in.
“We obviously had a lot of young players and a lot of players in who didn't play for a long time.
“We wanted to win this game to go to the next round, but the FA Cup is like this, you lose the game and you are out.”
Shaqiri also expects Liverpool to bounce back in their Premier League clash with Brighton on Saturday (3pm).
“This season we have the depth. There are a lot of players who are going to come in and give everything and the quality is still there,” he explained.