Today, I think our young players have down us proud! We had: Spearing, Robinson and Flanagan on in important positions throughout most of the game with Shelvey coming on midway through the second half. They kept their cool and we managed to get something out of the game. I would like to just point out what we have actually managed to accomplish today. Arsenal 2 players back from injury, No major injuries to their players, Had a chance to jumpstart their title hopes. Liverpool Before the match they were missing 4 main players of our first 11: Johnson, Kelly, Gerrard, Agger. During the match we lost: Carroll, Aurelio and Carragher through injury. They were replaced by 2 youngsters, neither of them over the age of 20: Robinson and Shelvey. Soto came on for Carragher, not the best defender in the world by far. I have to say; we were magnificent to get something out of the game; with a makeshift defence comprising of something worse than what we'd expect in the Europa league: Flanagan--Soto--Skrtel--Robinson. A midfield of Spearing, Lucas and Meireles all of them under 30, Spearing and Lucas under 25 and Spearing only have ~10 appearances throughout his time with us. An attack force of Kuyt, Suarez and Carroll where Carroll goes off injured in the 2nd half to be replaced by 18 year old Shelvey. By all accounts we shouldn't have played as good as we did considering the players we had out there. But we did, and I am proud of our players of getting a draw out of that match against seasoned internationals who beat Barcelona 2-1 earlier on in the season.
Agreed. Cracking effort by the young guns. The one good point from our injury problems is that we are being forced to push the younsters through. They wouldnt usualy get this chance, so it's a blessing in disguise.
Couldn't agree more. With our mounting injury list, the younger players are put into the team and expected to do a solid job. They all have. Flanagan has had two excellent games against difficult opposition and Robinson was put in and has to contend with Walcott. Spearing has also been excellent in the games I have seen. Delighted with a point which I think we fully deserved.
The two full backs in particular coped well today against a very good team in Arsenal (biggest bottlers ever?). Can't wait for a few more players to start coming through like Sterling and Suso to name but two! The future looks bright!
The ease in which they have adapted is remarkable.John Flanagan looks like he's been playing in the first team for years,he looks like a seasoned pro.Yet another faultless display.This is something that money cannot buy.I've seen ã30 million players that look like frightened rabbits when coming into a first team.Jack Robinson and Johm Flanagan are so assured its unbelievable.Jay Spearing shouldn't be classified as a youngster as he's 22.He's now in the Lucas bracket.He's more experience than the other two.But he is battle hardened which is a good thing.JonJo Shelvey is coming on leaps and bounds.The signs are encouraging.The work ethic and the unity is a joy to behold,this is one of the reasons why I believe our future is bright.Sign a few players,get rid of the deadwood that is taking too much room in the squad and give more of the youngsters a chance.
The big thing, is they all want to play for each other and the shirt. As a Liverpool fan, i haven't been this optimistic about our future in years.
I am probably going to get stick for bringing up Man United again,but this is a compliment on their behalf.The unity and togetherness that Kenny has instilled into the players and not just the youngsters is one of Man Uniteds and Fergusons trademarks.This surely bodes well for the future and is a real positive.The assured play by both Jack Robinson and John Flanagan was also encouraging and repayed the faith that Kenny has shown in both.I made a comment before that Kenny treats the academy players the same way he does the first team players.Sometimes managers can do too much tactically and over complicate things and forget about something more important and thats man management.I believe that more emphasis should be placed on man management and less on tactics,as the tactical side can sometimes be overcomplicated.Keep the tactical side simple,and place more emphasis on the motivational side.Kenny seems to be doing that.Give him the cash to build a side in his own image,the seeds for success have already been sown.This is one of the main reasons why I believe he's going to be successful.
