ROTTACH-EGERN, Germany -- Steven Gerrard says he is preparing players to be ready for Jurgen Klopp in the Liverpool first team ahead of his first season in charge of the under-18s side.
Gerrard, who began the role at the start of the month, has won his first two games in management, beating Burton Albion and Rapid Vienna in preseason friendlies.
The former Liverpool captain is hoping he will be able to use his vast experience to develop talent from the Kirkby academy, who will then contribute and play regularly in the senior side.
"He [Klopp] will only give the opportunity to people who are ready and people who he sees and watches and who he likes," Gerrard told the club's official website.
"There has been people who have been down to Melwood who don't go down very much or they haven't been seen since. Jurgen is prepared to give people chances who are ready on a football side but who he also likes and who have given him a good impression, if you like.
"I've lived a lot of my dreams at this football club and I know what it means to get into that first team and stay there, and also experience success and have that longevity.
"I would love nothing better than to see a lot more people at the academy go on and follow suit.
"There's a lot of other footballers who have experienced that as well so they will get a chance here under this manager. It's been proven if they are good enough and if they are prepared to keep on improving and work hard, go the extra mile, then Jurgen will put them in. The evidence is there."
Gerrard added: "The job for me is to try and improve these players on the football pitch, individually and collectively, and also make them professionals behaviour-wise and standard-wise.
"So, for example, if one of them jumps out of my group and goes into [Neil Critchley's U23s] group I'm not going to feel like they are going to let me down or let the club down, and it's the same when Critch passes them on to Jurgen.
"We've got to prepare players for first impressions under Jurgen. For example, if one of our players goes to Melwood and he's sloppy, he turns up late, he hasn't got the right uniform on, his body language is wrong and then he makes a mess of it on the pitch, he's not going to stay at Melwood very long and we will feel responsible for that.
"There's a lot that goes into it that people maybe on the outside don't expect. It's not just about the football side of it, it's the whole package we need to prepare footballers to be ready for Jurgen Klopp."
Meanwhile, after returning from their tour of Hong Kong, Liverpool's first team are currently in Germany for a training camp ahead of three more friendlies.
The Reds are using Rottach-Egern -- a small town around 40 miles south of Munich -- as their base for the entirety of their stay in Germany and will travel to face Hertha Berlin on Saturday before competing in the Audi Cup with Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Napoli on Aug. 1 and 2.
"We didn't want to be actually in Munich because we wanted a proper camp," Klopp told the Liverpool Echo.
"When we heard we would be part of the Audi Cup we decided to stay in this place. It's a fantastic area -- maybe the most beautiful area in the whole of Germany.
"It will be a really good camp. We have fantastic games with Hertha and then the Audi Cup so it's really exciting.
"We will try everything to become a confident, strong, powerful and tactically smart side. That's the plan."