Liverpool academy product Jake Cain admits he’s ‘disappointed’ with the lack of games in pre-season and wants a loan away.
Jake Cain gave an interview to Goal this week and he was remarkably honest with his take on pre-season. The 20-year-old didn’t travel with Liverpool on tour this summer, despite a whole host of youngsters getting the opportunity.
That’s despite a successful loan spell with Newport County last season – a spell that was supposed to help him reach the next level at Liverpool. Cain, of course, has been around the senior setup before, after all.
He’s played for the first-team, in fact – against Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup back in 2020. Cain also enjoyed a promising pre-season last time around, earning praise from Pep Lijnders.
This time, however, Liverpool left him out.
“I can’t lie, I was disappointed,” Cain gold Goal. “I thought I had a good loan, I did what was asked of me, and I thought I could come back and show the first team what I can do.
“They’re the best team in Europe, so I know it’s going to be very difficult to push for a place in the team, but I thought I might have been able to go on the tour, show what I can do and see what the first-team coaches said.
“So, yeah, it was disappointing.”
Jake Cain wants to leave Liverpool on loan
Cain is certainly going about things in the right way. He now wants to make sure there’s another loan on the way – another chance to prove himself at the senior level.
“I need to go on loan again,” he said. “I need men’s football, and I feel now that I’ll be ready to hit the ground running when the opportunity comes – I know that I’m ready.”
We’ve got to praise Cain for his honesty here. It would be very easy for the youngster to tow the line and say he trusts Liverpool with his future. Openly saying he’s disappointed isn’t a line you typically hear from within the club.
And the 20-year-old will know that some may not like hearing it. We’ll applaud him for it, then – it’s a brave way to go about things.
Of course, Cain is fighting a tough battle here. Liverpool have a lot of midfielders, many of whom are very young. Getting into the mix is about as tough as it gets right now.
A loan is exactly what he needs and we hope he gets one soon. Cain has always been a talented player – he just needs a decent opportunity to show it.
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