We just do things differently. Our way is to look at under 18's from other clubs that we feel have a chance of making it with us and buy them. Elliott and Clark are prime examples of that.
We aim for the best under 18's that are available. It's low risk and the player is closer to be older enough to sign professional full terms with us.
The two best acadmey players we've had under Klopp came through the acadmey. We don't really do anything different to other clubs. city, Chelsea and United have been recruiting heavily 14-17 aged players as well.
Jones has played over 80 games for us during a period where we've been one of the best clubs in the world. That's a massive success for the acadmey.
Producing that amount of acadmey talent over a short period (Gerrard, Carragher, Owen) Isn't normal. Look at the other top academies and who have they produced over the say last 5 years
Foden, Rashford, James, Mount, Saka. Is there anyone else currently who you'd say has played regularly at a high level for their club and/or International sides with them? Probably missing an obvious one or two. Chelsea had one of the most dominante acadmey sides ever over a 5 year period and got like 2 starters and maybe 2/3 squad players out of it. Some of that's down to bad management of them, but I wouldn't be expecting any acadmey to produce multiple players who play as much as say Trent and Foden have for us and City. The talent is just so spread out amongst academies now, clubs can buy just about any player they want to fill gaps in their squad.
The acadmey is doing well if it can keep producing players at say Neco Williams level, can be squad filler at the top and maybe more if we drop down a couple years, and occasionally a Trent or Jones who you'd expect more of.