Steven Gerrard, the England midfielder, has backed his Liverpool teammate Jonjo Shelvey to follow in his footsteps in style at Anfield.

Shelvey, 18 , moved to the Reds from Charlton Athletic in the summer for an initial fee of £1.7million.

He has appeared regularly for England at youth levels - scoring for the U19 side in the 4-0 win over Cyprus on Sunday - and made his senior Reds debut when he came off the bench in the League Cup third round loss to Northampton Town.

While there were few positives for Liverpool to take from that shock loss to a side from three divisions below them, Gerrard highlighted Shelvey's performance as one.

"When Jonjo came on against Northampton I thought he did really well. He put some dangerous balls into their box and just that piece of action will have done him the world of good as he moves forward," he told Liverpool's official website.

"It'll give him the confidence to try and shift people from the first XI. He is a talented player. He's still young and still a baby in football terms but if he keeps learning - not just from me but from everyone in the squad, people who are older than him and have been there and done it before - his game will continue to get better and better."