Liverpool FC - The Reserves Thread

Decent considering the players they're missing from that team.

Decent considering the players they're missing from that team.

And the standard they played against mate.  Good to hear Dunn played too.

And the standard they played against mate.  Good to hear Dunn played too.

Unfortunately I can't see Dunn being here much longer. He's 22 in November, that's crazy.

Unfortunately I can't see Dunn being here much longer. He's 22 in November, that's crazy.

Me neither mate.  Injuries have messed up so many of our young players over the last few years.

Me neither mate.  Injuries have messed up so many of our young players over the last few years.

I never saw him as a striker tbh, preferred him as an attacking mid.

I never saw him as a striker tbh, preferred him as an attacking mid.

Same mate but he knew where the net was regardless of where he played.

Any idea if the 16-year old from Ecuador was the trialist mentioned in the lineup?

Any idea if the 16-year old from Ecuador was the trialist mentioned in the lineup?

I think so mate but can't say for definite.

I had no idea the under-21's will now be the under-23's...

New-look U23 fixtures for 2016-17 released

Liverpool’s U21 side will switch to U23 for the 2016-17 season after the new fixtures were announced today.

The league will consist of two divisions with Michael Beale’s young Reds playing in the Premier League 2 Division 1.

The opening game will see the U23s face Southampton on Sunday August 14 at 1pm BST. All home venues for the new season have still to be confirmed.

Other fixtures of note will see the young Reds take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Friday August 25 and take on Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on Monday September 19.

U23 fixtures for 2016-17

August

Sunday 14 – Southampton (H) 1pm BST, venue TBC.

Monday 22 – Chelsea (A) 7.05pm, at Aldershot Town FC.

Friday 26 – Arsenal (A) 7pm, at Emirates Stadium.

September

Sunday 11 – Leicester City (H) 2pm, venue TBC.

Monday 19 – Tottenham Hotspur (A) 7pm, White Hart Lane.

Sunday 25 – Sunderland (H) 1pm, venue TBC.

October

Monday 17 – Manchester United (A) 7pm, Leigh Sports Village.

Sunday 23 – Everton (H) 1pm, venue TBC.

Saturday 29 – Manchester City (A) 1pm, venue TBC.

November

Sunday 20 – Reading (H) 1pm, venue TBC.

Monday 28 – Derby County (A) 7pm, venue TBC.

December

Sunday 11 – Arsenal (H) 1pm, venue TBC.

January 2017

Monday 9 – Leicester City (A) 7pm, Holmes Park, Leicestershire FA.

Sunday 15 – Manchester United (H) 1pm, venue TBC.

Sunday 29 – Sunderland (A) 12 noon, Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground.

February

Sunday 5 – Tottenham Hotspur (H) 1pm, venue TBC.

Sunday 19 – Derby County (H) 1pm, venue TBC.

March

Monday 6 – Reading (A) 7pm, venue TBC.

Sunday 12 – Chelsea (H) 1.05pm, venue TBC.

April

Monday 10 – Southampton (A) 7pm, Staplewood Training Ground.

Sunday 23 – Manchester City (H) 1pm, venue TBC.

May

Monday 8 – Everton (A) 7pm, Southport FC.

Good Idea I think. some games at anfield as well.

Our u23s took on Rhyl today and thrashed them 4-1 with goals from Wilson, Lennon, Kent and Hart.

We've a new LB Juanna (no idea how, where, when) talk is he's from La Messia but no idea if we've signed him or if he's on trial.

Great to see Harry Wilson back playing again, what a horrible year he's had.

Ah, but is he better than Alberto?

No idea Ian but he got the assist for Lennons header 

https://twitter.com/AnfieldHQ/status/757290878645985284

https://twitter.com/AnfieldHQ/status/757291119457828870

Liverpool FC take former Barcelona youngster on trial.

    20:00, 24 Jul 2016
    Updated 20:13, 24 Jul 2016
    By Andy Kelly

Defender will spend a week with Reds before decision made on his future.

Liverpool have moved to take a former Barcelona youngster on trial.

Juanma - full name Juan Manuel Garcia - started at left-back for Liverpool U21s in their friendly against Welsh Premier League outfit Rhyl FC.

And it was an impressive debut with the 19-year-old sending in a perfect cross for Brooks Lennon’s goal as the Reds ran out ready 4-1 winners.

Liverpool U21/U23s manager Michael Beale told the ECHO after the game that the player was someone he was keen to have a look at.

Beale said: “Juanma is a boy who’s come in to spend the week with us with a view to maybe seeing more of him. He’s only had a couple of days training with us, speaks very little English but you can see a very good player. He had a fantastic assist for Brooks Lennon.

“He was at Barcelona so we’ll have a look and see how we go with him. He played with (fellow Academy players) Madger Gomes and Pedro Chirivella with Spain so we’re quite familiar with him.

“He’s very versatile and can play in different positions because technically he’s very good.

“I quite like him, he reminds he a little bit of someone like a Pablo Zabaleta-type player, a nice player.”

Juanma played as a centre back and a left back during his time at Barcelona where he progressed through from the cadet team to Barcelona’s Youth B team and to the A team where he made 17 appearances in the UEFA Youth League, including six as captain.

It is not the first time Liverpool have moved to take a player with experience of Barcelona’s La Masia academy.

In 2013, the Academy picked up Sergi Canos from the same place and after a couple of years at the Academy and an impressive loan spell at Brentford last season, he moved to Norwich earlier this month for a fee of £2.5m rising to £4.5m.

Another youngster in the Academy after leaving Barcelona is Bobby Adekanye, a flying 17-year-old winger whose first season was dogged by injury but who remains full of potential.

Speaking of Canos’ departure, Beale said: “A fantastic move for Sergi Canos and we wish him well going on with his career now with Norwich. Sergi’s a fantastic kid, had a good year last year at Brentford and it’s a good move for him. Norwich are a big club, one of the favourites for the Championship this year and it just shows that if the boys don’t progress through to our first team and do well we are now churning out players that will play at a high level.

“The Academy can’t just be taking all the time, can it? The investment in the players and staff is a big investment for any club. It’s important that over time if the work’s been good, you’ve got a manager that will trust the players and secondly that those players have got a value.

“That’s what we’re started to see more and more of now. There’s probably 10 or 12 players that people are really aware of and excited about that will either make their way into our first team under Jürgen (Klopp) or will have top careers.

“That’s what we want our Academy to be known for, we don’t want to be selling a dream for a boy when he comes in at nine and at 17 he’s off finding a day job for himself.”

Another new face in the Rhyl game was Nathan Phillips, a centre back who played in the second half alongside Llloyd Jones.

Beale said: “Nathan is another guy we’re looking at from outside as well. Our numbers are quite low at the moment with boys who came back yesterday with the youth team. We picked up one or two injuries in our game in midweek (on tour in Germany) with Madger Gomes, Jake Brimmer and Paolo Alves.

“So we’ve supplemented it with a couple of players we’d like to have a look at. They’re triallists at the minute but we’ll see. There’s a couple more games this week, we go to Celtic on Wednesday, Morecambe’s first team on Saturday and we play MK Dons on Monday.”

Unfortunately I can't see Dunn being here much longer. He's 22 in November, that's crazy.

 

Maybe we keep him around now that it's gone u-23 league,if he can stay healthy that is.

Things definitely looking up for the Academy. Glad to see Klopp will continue to use U23 matches primarily for developing prospects.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/liverpool-focus-younger-players-new-11665064

 

Maybe we keep him around now that it's gone u-23 league,if he can stay healthy that is.

I think that will be the case now. If I was him though I'd be looking to get away from the academy and getting some first team football in the lower leagues.

Will be great if it is competitive, also good for the older players coming back from injury to get some game time in a more competitive environment.


http://www.skysports.com/football/news/32461/10513184/premier-league-2-new-youth-competition-explained

Premier League 2: New youth competition explained

The Premier League has announced the introduction of Premier League 2 for the 2016/17 season - but what is it and how will it work? Here we answer the key questions on the new competition...

Premier League 2 will replace the current U21 league, with the age range extended to incorporate U23s.

However, each team can field a goalkeeper over the age limit of 23 and up to three 'over-age' outfield players can take part in every match.



Players must have been born after January 1, 1993 to be eligible, though.

Which teams will be in Premier League 2?

There will be two divisions - Premier League 2, Division 1 and Premier League 2, Division 2 - with 12 teams in each.

The 24 clubs involved each applied for 'Category One' status in the elite player performance lan and are made up of 15 Premier League sides and nine clubs from the Championship.

Teams in Division 1: Arsenal, Chelsea, Derby County, Everton, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Reading, Southampton, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur

Teams in Division 2: Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Brighton & Hove Albion, Fulham, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Swansea City, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers

What is the format of Premier League 2?

Within their respective division, clubs play each other once at home and once away.

In Division 1, the team which finishes top are champions, with the bottom two teams relegated to Division 2.

The winners of Division 2 are automatically promoted to Division 1, while second, third, fourth and fifth go into a play-off for promotion. There is no relegation from Division 2.

Where will the games be played?

Each club must host at least three league matches at their main stadium during the course of the season. Up to three other home matches may be staged at the clubs' training grounds or academy venues.

In the Division 2 play-offs, the semi-finals will take place at the main stadiums of the clubs which finish second and third, while the final will be held at the home ground of the team who finished highest in the league.

Who are the favourites to win it?

Manchester United have won the Premier League's U21 competition in three of the past four seasons. Chelsea denied them the title in 2013/14 and the Blues, who have won the FA Youth Cup for the past three seasons and the 2015 and 2016 UEFA Youth League, will be strong contenders for Premier League 2.

Why has it been introduced?

Premier League 2 has been designed to boost the number of home grown players progressing into the first-team squad of the clubs involved. The idea is to give the young players at those clubs a matchday experience closer to the one they would find in the first team.

"We are always trying to develop more and better home grown players, with a record 67 making their debut last season," said Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore. "The hardest part for players is the transition period from development football to the first team. Premier League 2 is structured to give players the optimum opportunity to get to the Premier League through more competitive and meaningful game time.

"The average age for a player to make their first team debuts is between 22 and 23. Therefore it is right that we extend the age range to Under-23 to give greater opportunities for players to make it."

What has been the reaction of the clubs?

At the launch, David Unsworth, who is a coach at Everton, said: "We certainly feel it's a step in the right direction. The Premier League are listening to a lot of academy coaches. The aim of the age shift is that we think there are going to be more older players and, on average, older squads playing. The best way to develop players is have them playing at a level that will test them every week."

Manchester United's academy boss, Nicky Butt, is also a supporter. "It's fantastic to be involved in this new competition," he said. "Here at United we understand the importance of our academy, it's something that the club is built upon and in the DNA of Manchester United."

Will this be the only competition for young players?

No. In addition to Premier League 2, clubs will also have opportunity to compete in the Premier League Cup, the Premier League International Cup and, for the first time, the EFL Trophy.

The Premier League International Cup has been expanded to 24 clubs - 12 domestic clubs and 12 international clubs - and the Premier League Cup (formerly the U21 Premier League Cup) has taken on a 32-team Champions League format.

This is fantastic news for TAA, Ejaria and Woodburn, they all held their own against older, more experienced players in the pre season games they played.

Liverpool will focus on younger players in new U23s set-up.
   
    13:28, 26 Jul 2016
    Updated 13:28, 26 Jul 2016
    By Andy Kelly

New Academy format will still see Reds concentrate on youth.

Liverpool’s new U23s team will continue to concentrate on younger players despite the changes to the age restrictions.  The new format replaces the U21s Premier League which has been in place for the last few years.  As well as U23s, each team can choose three outfield overage players and a goalkeeper under new rules announced last week.

That could effectively see some teams use the U23s as an old-style reserves team but it seems such a move is unlikely from the Reds.  Underneath the U23s, the next level at Kirkby is the U18s squad which had such a good year last season.

U23s manager Michael Beale has told the ECHO that his team will concentrate on talent at the younger end of the spectrum.

“Our team will be probably be around the average age of 19.  Ovie Ejaria, Trent Alexander, Ben Woodburn, they’ll come back and join this group.  We’ll see how it works.  For some clubs it will be very beneficial, it means their first team can drop (into the U23s) five or six from their bench the day before.  Jürgen can use the U23s as he sees fit.  At the moment he’s using a lot of them with the first team and not so many seniors coming the other way and that’s great for us.”

Beale sees the flow of players from the Academy to the first team as vital for development.

“We have a lot of good young players, now if they were all in the Academy teams we’d have a problem because you can only play 11 at any one time.  So it’s important that while Ovie (Ejaria) is up there you’re seeing Adam Phillips being a main player in this team and while Ben Woodburn and Ryan Kent are up there, you’ve still got Harry Wilson able to play in this team."

“If they’re all bundled in the same team there’s not enough room for them all to play and therefore it probably holds back their development.  Remember Sheyi Ojo is just coming back from the European U19s tournament.”

Klopp has shown his willingness to use the Academy youngsters and the Kirkby centre certainly finds itself in a good place currently.

Beale added: “At the moment we’ve got the right manager, he’s really helping.  The manager can make or break any Academy and I think our manager is doing us proud but at the same time he wouldn’t play them if he didn’t think they had the potential.  At this moment in time a lot of things are locking together for us.”

Liverpool U23s travel to Glasgow on Wednesday to play Celtic before heading to take on Morecambe’s first team on Saturday lunchtime.

Their season proper starts with a home league game against Southampton on August 14.

This is fantastic news for TAA, Ejaria and Woodburn, they all held their own against older, more experienced players in the pre season games they played.

Liverpool will focus on younger players in new U23s set-up.
   
    13:28, 26 Jul 2016
    Updated 13:28, 26 Jul 2016
    By Andy Kelly

New Academy format will still see Reds concentrate on youth.

Liverpool’s new U23s team will continue to concentrate on younger players despite the changes to the age restrictions.  The new format replaces the U21s Premier League which has been in place for the last few years.  As well as U23s, each team can choose three outfield overage players and a goalkeeper under new rules announced last week.

That could effectively see some teams use the U23s as an old-style reserves team but it seems such a move is unlikely from the Reds.  Underneath the U23s, the next level at Kirkby is the U18s squad which had such a good year last season.

U23s manager Michael Beale has told the ECHO that his team will concentrate on talent at the younger end of the spectrum.

“Our team will be probably be around the average age of 19.  Ovie Ejaria, Trent Alexander, Ben Woodburn, they’ll come back and join this group.  We’ll see how it works.  For some clubs it will be very beneficial, it means their first team can drop (into the U23s) five or six from their bench the day before.  Jürgen can use the U23s as he sees fit.  At the moment he’s using a lot of them with the first team and not so many seniors coming the other way and that’s great for us.”

Beale sees the flow of players from the Academy to the first team as vital for development.

“We have a lot of good young players, now if they were all in the Academy teams we’d have a problem because you can only play 11 at any one time.  So it’s important that while Ovie (Ejaria) is up there you’re seeing Adam Phillips being a main player in this team and while Ben Woodburn and Ryan Kent are up there, you’ve still got Harry Wilson able to play in this team."

“If they’re all bundled in the same team there’s not enough room for them all to play and therefore it probably holds back their development.  Remember Sheyi Ojo is just coming back from the European U19s tournament.”

Klopp has shown his willingness to use the Academy youngsters and the Kirkby centre certainly finds itself in a good place currently.

Beale added: “At the moment we’ve got the right manager, he’s really helping.  The manager can make or break any Academy and I think our manager is doing us proud but at the same time he wouldn’t play them if he didn’t think they had the potential.  At this moment in time a lot of things are locking together for us.”

Liverpool U23s travel to Glasgow on Wednesday to play Celtic before heading to take on Morecambe’s first team on Saturday lunchtime.

Their season proper starts with a home league game against Southampton on August 14.

Absolutely Fantastic is this,

We've seen already how impressive our young lads have been recently, to have regular prem 2 games that will enhance their overall play and bring them closer to the first team bodes well for their careers and indeed the club's future, the future is very bright indeed.


YNWA

Morecambe today,anyone wise to the line up?

Very interesting interview with Pep Ljinders about player development on the official site here:

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/2016-tour/229805-pep-talk-development-legacy-and-pre-season-principles

Confirms optimism for the future under the current setup.

We brought some sunshine in the end 2-1,Dunn and Lennon.