Jurgen Klopp "had no idea" about new signing Dominic Solanke

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 21 July 2017

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp reveals that he struggled to find any footage of Dominic Solanke in action prior to signing him from Chelsea earlier this summer.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has confessed that he barely knew what he was getting when signing Dominic Solanke from Chelsea, as he struggled to view any footage of the youngster in action.

The England Under-20s international has made a bright start to life with the Reds, scoring his first goal for the club in Wednesday's 2-0 friendly win over Crystal Palace in Hong Kong.

Klopp admits that he had to dig deep to find clips of Solanke, who will likely set Liverpool back £3m once his fee has been decided at a tribunal hearing, and was delighted when he found out that the player wanted to join.

"The only thing I can say is the first time I heard that Dominic wants to come, I was really happy about that," he told reporters. "But it was difficult to find footage about him. It was a long time since he played so it was hard.

"The only thing we could get was a little bit of him playing in Holland [on loan for Vitesse Arnhem] and a bit of under-20s or under-19s. That's not the best footage.

"Everyone in England knew him but I had no idea about him. I started to learn more and more and I trust the guys around us, the scouts, so I said: 'Let's do it.'"

Solanke made just one first-team appearance for Chelsea upon emerging from the youth ranks in 2014.