ROBBIE Fowler insists that Jürgen Klopp and his staff won’t allow Ben Woodburn to get ahead of himself after hitting the headlines recently.
Woodburn became Liverpool’s youngest ever goalscorer with his strike in the League Cup win over Leeds United, beating the record previously held by Michael Owen.
And Fowler believes that the youngster is in the best possible hands at Liverpool, with Klopp and his backroom team.
Fowler, speaking on Monday at the announcement of Liverpool Legends’ upcoming clash with Real Madrid, said: “I’ve heard he’s a really level-headed lad and it helps when you’re a good player.
“He’s been prolific in all the age groups he’s played, but it’s important now that he gets well looked after.
“The players and staff at Liverpool know that and they stop you from getting a bit too big for your boots.
“Jürgen is very astute when it comes to handling young players and doing what’s right for them.”
Fowler made his breakthrough to the Liverpool first team at the age of 18, scoring on his debut in a League Cup clash with Fulham — drawing obvious comparisons with Woodburn’s rise through the ranks.
And he believes it was the staff at the club that kept him grounded after he burst on the scene, by targeting constant improvement rather than showering him with praise.
He added: “There were loads who helped me at that time. Graeme Souness was the manager, but one of the biggest influences was Ronnie Moran, he was brilliant with me.
“He’d been at Liverpool for almost 50 years and had worked with some unbelievable players and I never once saw him get excited about any player.
“After the Fulham game when I scored five the first thing he said to me was, ‘You should have had six’.
“As much as he knew you were a good player and wanted you to do well, he never showed that.
“He wanted what was best for the club and no individual was ever allowed to be more important than that.”
Fowler, aptly nicknamed “God” by some supporters, couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment that everything changed in his experience, but felt that his transition to the first team was helped due to being a local lad.
“Obviously my life did change, but I could never really pinpoint when it did because I was as normal as the next lad.
“Maybe that’s why I had a rapport with the Liverpool fans, because they saw a bit of themselves in me and that helped them take to me.
“But the change was more gradual because you were never really allowed to be big-headed at Liverpool, so I never really had a day when I went to bed one night and woke up the following morning a different person.”
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