20 Aug 2015 11:10:38
Ed001,
Hope your well mate, congratulations on the launch of your podcast, great to see such positivity coming from it.
A topic I would like to touch on is the communication between first team & academy/reserves. In honesty, i'm a football fan not someone being paid at the highest level to make decisions but could clearly see that there has been absolutely no need for several signings. The first, i'd say is Lallana who I think is a decent player, the problem is it was evident young Teixera who was waiting in the wings has similar if not more technical ability than Lallana. £25 million spent when we had a player ready to fill that position. The same with Markovic, I don’t understand the reasoning when we have Jordan Ibe and too a similar extent Ilori with Lovren. I find it disappointing, a waste of time and money and it musn’t give the academy players much hope of getting a chance in the first team in the future. A lot may argue that these players weren’t ready, I would like to disagree. If you have the ability then it shoudlnt be a issue whether your 17 or 27 the only way you will physically and technically improve is by playing against and with men. It should be the case in my eyes where we look to the academy first, if there isn’t a solution there then we look to the market. Add 2 or 3 top level players to the team (the bottle of champagne) instead of 9-10 bottles of Lambrisco. Does Brendan have a say in the academy? Does he show real interest in what goes on? And finally, going forward with out new coaching staff, do you see some of the younger lads being given the chance, especially if Sakho & Lucas leave,
Many thanks
{Ed001's Note - he doesn't show any real interest other than to have a few academy lads up to train with the first team. That is often seen as just making up numbers for training games etc though, as, like you pointed out, there is so little chance of them actually getting a game no matter how well they perform in training.
I hope that the new coaching staff will push forward a few more of the youngsters, as O'Driscoll did with Gomez, I hope he can do the same with a few already at the club. I am not convinced it will happen though.}
20 Aug 2015 13:08:35
Its a real shame isn't it. It seems one player may leave the club and the fans talk about the next player coming in not coming through and that mentality is now blooded into the management of the club. It kinda makes me think what the point of a Academy is. Only by luck have Sterling, Ibe & Flanagan been given chances not by great management, progression and trust. He's a con, as you say I hope O'Driscoll can push his ideas forward and give some of the greater talented kids a go like he has with Gomez.
20 Aug 2015 13:59:43
I am a bit tired of the 'not enough academy players in the squad debate'. Also - I am not reading the banter pages of other top clubs, but my guess is that this is an LFC fans particular obsession.
People have to accept that in this day and age, statistically the chance that an Academy of a club will provide more than one player to senior team is very low. Long gone the day of Backham and friends. How many players in the starting 11 of Chelsea, the current ManU, City and Arsenal are? We actually have Ibe, we had Flano - not BR's fault that he got injured and we had Sterling although not sure if he can be considered our academy graduate. All of them promoted by BR btw, and found their way to the first team (I personally think Ibe is not good enough for the first team but will not get into that now). AnfeildApple, not sure what you mean by 'pure luck'? Wasn't it BR who decided to give them a chance? Wasn't it his decision to bring Ibe from loan? How was that luck?
You can argue that if the academy does not provide players to the first team what is a point of an academy, fair point but I assume it is still worth it as a source of income if the players go to other teams. In any case, the route for the first team of clubs like LFC now, unless it is an exceptional talent, is to go for a loan and if a player proves himself there he will be back with us. Perfectly legitimate way. Unfortunately a lot of our academy players are not good enough for our first team.
{Ed001's Note - neither Ibe nor Sterling were academy graduates. Sterling and Flanno were in and around the first team squad when Rodgers arrived. They were not promoted by Rodgers at all. The difference is between the 4 you are comparing us with and us, is simply finances. Those four have more money to buy ready made players, so, to have any chance of competing in the long term, we need to produce players of our own. Going head to head buying players will just see us gradually lose ground.}
20 Aug 2015 14:06:28
Nice to see Brendan at the mini derby last night. Oh no wait, he couldn't be bothered yet again.
20 Aug 2015 14:07:40
Hi Ed001
Liverpool played Everton under 21 last night and Rodgers was nowhere to be seen (i may be wrong), if a manager can't be botherec to watch a game like that then I feel sorry for the young kids playing. It must be so soul destroying to put performances in like Teixeira and not get noticed/watched by the first team manager.
llori also strolled through the first half, made the game look easy. He needs to step up to challenge himself either at Liverpool or somewhere else.
Evered
{Ed001's Note - it is something that I have mentioned before, it drives me up the wall. Dalglish, even Hodgson, managed to find time to get to the academy games on a regular basis.}
20 Aug 2015 15:06:52
Fanobip it hasn't changed at all, the new Fowlers, Owens, McManamans and Gerrards are still there but they're just not getting first team opportunities and instead we buy in players at huge expense.
20 Aug 2015 15:32:27
Lets remember Fanobip Konoplyanka and Salah were being touted, only for them deals to not happen Sterling was given the chance. If either of those players signed, would Sterling have got games? Its really only Britain that don't utilise their academy, when you have players good enough why not let them step up? Every player starts off in a academy at a club, they don't just fall into stardom.