EXCLUSIVE: Billy Koumetio reveals all about how he signed for Liverpool and first broke into Jurgen Klopp's first team
The Frenchman was one of four fringe centre-backs to depart the Reds on loan this summer. As Rhys Williams and Sepp van den Berg moved to Aberdeen and Mainz respectively for the season back in July, and Nat Phillips was snapped up by Celtic just before transfer deadline day, he was granted his own temporary departure to newly-promoted Ligue 2 side USL Dunkerque late last month
READ MORE: Argentine media hail Alexis Mac Allister after winning Moises Caicedo battle as Liverpool striker finds scoring touch “We had three centre-backs who were the same foot, same age but different style of play. One moved, the other stayed and is now playing in the first team. I think I was one of only two players at that time who didn’t get any offer from Lyon.
Koumetio hasn’t always been a centre-back. He actually started his career as a winger, before moving back to left-back. Having seen injuries derail his progress at Lyon at times, it was enforced absences elsewhere that saw him transformed into a centre-half. “It’s a privilege to train with him and the other defenders and talk to them every day. I take what I can take from any of them. Whether it’s Konate or Matip or Van Dijk or Gomez. I take bits from all of them and make my own game. It is a privilege to see them every day and I learn something new from them every day.
“At the end of the season, I was on the bench and we were playing PSG. We had an injury at centre-back and the second coach told the first coach to, ‘Put Billy in!’ Koumetio admits he was shocked to hear such words from his manager, and although it wasn’t his first taste of training with the first team, revealed how his senior team-mates helped him settle in.
“Hendo was coming to me, the elders of the team were coming to me and talking to me about the way I play. On the first days I didn’t know what the training would look like or how I would do, but what I will always remember, 100%, is the way he made me feel comfortable. “That can help me be better on the pitch and at the club. I take anything that he’s giving to me, so he helped me a lot for sure and made me comfortable. When you come for the first time , whether it’s in pre-season or being in the group, or playing a game, seeing the elders, come over to you, talk to you, make you comfortable, offer you a seat at their table.
“Sometimes, he is one who gives me advice on how to work and how to do things. It’s not just him, they are all examples to me. I look at the way they are doing things. And if, for example, for 10 seconds or one minute I’m just there doing nothing, it would be like, ‘Billy! What are you doing?! Come on, come on! Give more, give more!’
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