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Football

31st Jan 2016

New Liverpool wonderkid explains his unusual squad number request

Avoiding pressure

Robert Redmond

Marko Grujic looks like an exciting prospect.

The 19 year old Serbian was Jurgen Klopp’s first signing for Liverpool, before returning to Red Star Belgrade on-loan for the rest of the season.

When Grujic finally arrives at his new club in the summer he says he won’t want to wear his favourite shirt number for obvious reasons – he doesn’t want the pressure of wearing Steven Gerrard’s number.

The midfielder, who was recently named the 20th best player in the world under 20, told a Serbian journalist that he’ll wear number 35 or number 88 next season.

We can’t imagine there’ll be much competition for either, Marko.

In fairness to the 19 year old, he probably doesn’t need the added weight of wearing such a famous number so early in his Liverpool career.

Although if he’s good enough, the number on the back won’t matter. Andy Carroll didn’t fail at Liverpool because he wore the famous number 9.

Grujic also revealed his excitement at signing for Klopp’s side, and that he’ll be fulfilling a dream by playing for Liverpool.

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