Liverpool’s lengthy injury list might mean that Jurgen Klopp’s squad has been down to the bare bones in recent weeks, but one man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity.
In the absence of numerous senior stars, more and more of the Reds’ youngsters are being turned to by the German. And they are proving they are more than ready for such opportunities.
Consequently, it has been the proudest of weekends for Liverpool’s Academy. As the Reds thrashed AFC Bournemouth 4-0 on Sunday to move five points clear at the top of the table, nine Academy graduates were named in Klopp’s matchday squad.
Overlook the blurred lines regarding Joe Gomez’s arrival as an 18-year-old from Charlton Athletic, and such a total can stand at 10.
Conor Bradley would make his Premier League debut against the Cherries, starting alongside Gomez, Curtis Jones, and Harvey Elliott, and marked the occasion with an assist for Liverpool’s third goal of the night. With the win now in the bag, Owen Beck would be handed a maiden top-flight appearance off the bench, while Bobby Clark and Kaide Gordon were also introduced.
Consider that vice-captain Trent Alexander-Arnold missed the game with a knee injury, Stefan Bajcetic has missed most of the campaign with long-term injury after last year’s breakthrough season, and Caoimhin Kelleher, Jarell Quansah, Ben Doak, and James McConnell have all played in the Premier League this season, the club’s youth ranks have never looked stronger.
Beyond them, Luke Chambers and Callum Scanlon have played in cup competitions, while Thomas Hill, Vitezslav Jaros, Lewis Koumas, Marcelo Pitaluga, Fabian Mrozek, and Trey Nyoni have all made matchday squads. That’s 21 Academy graduates who have, at the very least, been named in a first team squad this season.
And even if such senior recognition has not yet been forthcoming, Trent Kone-Doherty is one example of a Reds youngster who has at least trained with the first team in recent weeks.
But it’s not just that Academy-aided thrashing of Bournemouth that made it a weekend to remember down at Kirkby. Liverpool Under-18s put in a performance to remember as they thrashed Arsenal 7-1 to reach the FA Youth Cup fifth round.
Kone-Doherty and the in-form Jayden Danns, who now has 19 competitive goals at Academy level this season, registered braces apiece in the win, while Koumas scored a hat-trick. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Nyoni also played a starring role in midfield as he continues to catch the eye following his summer move from Leicester City.
And while the quartet have all featured for the Under-21s this season, and will no doubt be eying first team opportunities in the future, they were all asking to be ‘demoted’ so they could play in the FA Youth Cup against the Gunners.
“The opportunity will be there. The manager and the first team staff have shown an awful lot of belief in giving the Academy boys an opportunity,” Under-18s manager Marc Bridge-Wilkinson told reporters after the final whistle. “At the moment, with the opportunity being there, the boys are taking it.
“We’re really lucky here that we’ve got a group of staff, at the younger age groups and at the older age groups so it transmits all the way through the Academy, that try to keep these boys level and grounded.
“Each and every one of these boys has been asking to play because they want to play. It is important for them to play in this game. They want to be with their friends, their peers, and they want to take this competition, like the club does, seriously.”
With so many Academy youngsters working their way up the ladder this season, Bridge-Wilkinson revealed Liverpool coaching staff have weekly discussions regarding who will train with the first team, Under-21s, and Under-18s. Such flexibility will continue at Kirkby.
“It’s something we discuss on a weekly basis,” he said. “We’ve got players who will move up and down, we’ve got players that will stay with the Under-21s, and there will be some that train with the first team.
“It’s an open pathway, and at any time, people can get an opportunity to go up to the top, or they can drop back in to play a game with ourselves. It just depends what the individuals need at the time.”
It is no coincidence that Liverpool’s Academy has flourished even more since the first team left their historic Melwood home and set up base in Kirkby at the AXA Training Centre in November 2020. A shared campus benefits and encourages this cherished open pathway, leading to more and more players stepping up when the time comes.
Seeing his side put seven goals past Arsenal, Bridge-Wilkinson was also full of praise for his side’s forwards. Yet he also admitted he thinks his side should have scored more.
“From a coaching standpoint and club point of view, we’re not really too fussed about who scores,” he said. “We just want to make sure we get those goals and progress to the next round.
“They (the forwards) definitely were (unplayable) tonight. It’s a really interesting blend, they are each different, they each threaten the opposition back line in a different way. When we can get them – like tonight – playing together, combining together and starting to work with each other, obviously they are really threatening.
“Jayden’s having a great season, but Lewis has come back in today and managed to get a hat-trick. And we’ve got people waiting in the wings like Figgy (Keyrol Figueroa). We’ve got Trent (Kone-Doherty) in there as well, and Kieran (Morrison) on the other side. There are a lot of players at the top end of the pitch who can score goals for us.”
He continued: “It was a really good overall performance. I think there was a lot of really nice play from the team. So many individual performances were fantastic and overall the team performance was really, really good.
“Work ethic, the application to run, to press, to recover, and to defend. And of course, we know we’ve got quality with the ball as well and that showed today.
“The most pleasing thing was the work-rate from the front four, front five. The whole team really. To work forwards, to work backwards, to run off the ball, to recover and defend, to make it a 2v1 in our favour rather than their favour.
“It’s all about the work ethic. We know we can play, we know we’ve got quality within the group. But when we apply ourselves in the correct manner like we did tonight, we can do this to teams.
“It’s just about making sure we do the right things. We’ve got to stay in the game, we’ve got to make sure we earn the right to play. The way that we counter-press, the way that we press the game was really good. The way we counter-attacked when winning the ball was decisive.
“On a different day with different decisions at the top-end of the pitch, maybe we could have scored a few more. Arsenal are a good side, they had some really nice play and were threatening our back-line, especially in the first half.
“I don’t know if the scoreline flattered us, I’d need to watch it back to see, but our performance was really good against a really good Arsenal team.”