Jurgen Klopp feels Adama Traore was Middlesbrough's biggest threat to his Liverpool side on Wednesday night and dubbed the winger "quite quick", admitting the Reds sometimes needed four players to stop him causing damage.
Liverpool eased to a 3-0 win at the Riverside Stadium with goals from Adam Lallana (two) and Divock Origi, but Boro did cause the Reds defensive worries at points, especially as they looked to match Traore up against James Milner, Klopp's left-back.
Klopp agrees with the view that the former Barcelona youngster was Middlesbrough's biggest threat of the night and saluted his abilities.
The German even admitted that on occasion Liverpool needed up to four players to stop Traore, while stressing Milner could not be left alone to deal with the 20-year-old.
"Yes, he was, wasn't he?" Klopp replied at a press conference when asked about Traore being Boro's most threatening player.
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"He is quite quick actually.
"That is difficult and it changed the whole game. We closed the spaces really well and made the passes in his space as difficult as possible, it was the plan.
"But when the ball is there we cannot leave Millie alone", the Liverpool boss continued.
"Unfortunately sometimes we had three, four versus one, at the end it was a free-kick, which does not make too much sense.
"Obviously his quality is so high that you need four players to take him out of the game, even with not a lot of chances which Middlesbrough could create", he added.
Middlesbrough scooped up Traore, who came through the youth system at Spanish giants Barcelona, from Aston Villa in the summer transfer window after an unhappy stint at Villa Park.
Traore, 20, penned a four-year deal with Boro and may have well played his way into Klopp's list of players to watch following his display against Liverpool.
