http://bleacherreport.com/articles/796060-liverpool-youngsters-gear-up-for-nextgen-series-european-test-awaits-coady-co By Karl Matchett (Featured Columnist) on August 8, 2011 295 reads 0
In less than two weeks, Liverpool and 15 other teams kick off their NextGen Series tournaments with the first round of fixtures in the new European under-19 tournament, with its Champions League-style format.
For Liverpool, this represents another step up for the highly acclaimed Academy setup which has been overseen for the last couple of seasons by Frank McParland (Director), Pep Segura (Technical Director), Rodolfo Borrell (under-18 coach) and Mike Marsh (under-16 coach).
This summer saw something of a change to the coaching setup as Marsh took over the under-18 side, and Borrell moved up to lead the reserve team, which functions mainly as an under-21 side for Liverpool these days.
Great strides have been made by the youngsters at the club and those directing them over the past couple of seasons, exemplified by the appearances and performances in the second half of 2010-11 of first Martin Kelly and Jay Spearing (though at 22, he has been more a reserve team product over the same time period than an under 18/academy player, despite obviously coming through the academy system long-term) and later in the season fullback pair Jack Robinson and John Flanagan.
Robinson and Flanagan will no doubt feature further for Liverpool’s first team in the coming 2011-12 season, but with senior players having now returned from injuries (such as Fabio Aurelio and Glen Johnson), they may find games not quite as regularly forthcoming as at the back end of last term, at least in the near future.
Both of those players, however, at just 17 and 18 years of age respectively, are still eligible to take part in Liverpool’s NextGen Series side, despite featuring heavily in the first team’s preseason campaign.
As well as the talented fullback duo, budding central midfielder Conor Coady played and scored for the first team while out on the tour of Asia last month, as well as featuring against Hull City and Galatasary.
Andre Wisdom, a powerful and composed on-the-ball defender who has featured for England’s youth sides regularly, came off the bench in Liverpool’s first four preseason friendlies this summer and was involved in two first-team squads last season, as well as training with the first team during the campaign.
Much spoken-about Raheem Sterling made a cameo appearance for Liverpool against Norwegian outfit Valerenga and also represented England at the recent under-17 tournament, while defender Stephen Sama also made his first-team bow in the fixture against the Norwegians.
Such exposure at a young age—Sterling is still only 16 while Coady, Sama and Wisdom are all 18—does not necessarily translate to future success in a Red shirt but certainly serves to indicate the relative position of strength of the academy and reserve sides at present.
It also shows that in such a high-profile tournament these players may get a taste of what could be to come should they continue to improve and challenge for a senior place in the coming months and years.
The Reds will face strong competition from Molde and Wolfsburg but arguably the toughest part of the draw—in terms of reputation at least—will come from the impressive youth outfit of Sporting Lisbon, heralded as one of the most prolific and consistent production lines on the continent and the side against which Liverpool’s youngsters will make their debut in the competition.
Whether Liverpool do well, win the tournament or get knocked out at the group stage is at this point almost irrelevant. Certainly, it is at least secondary to preparing the young players for the challenges that lie ahead.
A minimum of six mouth-watering clashes against some of the continent’s finest representatives of this age group could give a real indication of exactly where the promising youngsters are in their development, and impressive showings in the NextGen Series will certainly do their chances no harm at all of joining up with the senior squad again in the near future.
Robinson, Flanagan, Spearing and Kelly all made big strides last season under Kenny Dalglish. Rodolfo Borrell’s next wave of young charges will hope to emulate them this coming season, and the upcoming tournament is a great platform for them to show just why each of them should be next.
