Liverpool FC Forum

[Paul C]

This is not because of tonight but something I've been saying for a long time, we spend £19m on an academy and not once in 8 years have we produced a decent young player, we have had Warnock yes who is a half decent sqaud player but since Gerrard came through the ranks in 1999 their hasn't been anyone.

Watching some of tonights young players against the youth players of Arsenal was embarassing, it's not just the quality but the footballing brain, you only have to look at Pelteier and Paletta cos neither of them could read the game and were caught out of position numberous times, the problem I have is these young players could save us a lot of money in the transfer market rather than having to millions, we have already brought in 'promissing' players like Jack Hobbs, Godwin Antwi, Besian Idrizaj, Paul Anderson, etc but non have lived upto expectation.

I just feel let down when we play our so called best youth players and they get shown up like they did tonight, it has to improve for the good of the club 

Roll on Barca 

[puroresu]

I have lost faith with producing home grown british talent.  British youngsters dont cut it.  1 or 2 gems may appear but facts are the majority dont cut the mustard.  Rafa needs to look at what Wenger has done.  Europe and Africa is the place to look.  Get this kids in early and let the develop. 

Tonight showed that the takeover dont mean nothing.  How much did Wenger pay for his kids?  Its all about good scouts and picking up the hottest talent in Europe.  Oh and also Rafa needs to learn that pace has to be on the list.  Wenger doesnt want kids who cant run.  Pace is everything in the modern game.  Palletta is so slow its unreal. 

Just how many kids from Europe has Rafa brought in?  How many kids that all the top clubs were after?

[DonnieDarko]

purosero lad- I dont like you because you are so thick.

It has nothing to do with British or African or European or Fkkking Scandinavean. The reason that Arsenal has a better youth squad is because they give their kids chances to play. Justin Hoyte, Diaby,Song, and that Neilson kid blow but they each get the occasional game. Its about giving kids chances. I wish occasionally Rafa would put someone like Paul Anderson or Jack Hobbs in the squad against poorer teams at home and give them a run out. I guarentee you that would bolster their confidence a bit. It is almost impossible though trying to intergrate yourself into a team of people you have never played with before (like how our youth players feel now).

end.

[KOPMATT]

I t really don't matter where they're from just whether they're good enough! Does it matter that Sissoko is from Mali? No but he's Good enough! Did it matter that Rush was from Flint(Wales)? no because he was good enough! My point is I don't matter the biggest problem we seem to have is that the youngsters we have don't appear to good enough! That is maybe why Rafa isn't giving them a game? Are our scouts good enough? Is the coaching good enough?
I was personally hoping to see more of Paul Anderson this season but now we're out of both domestic cups that seems highly unlikely now.   

[DonnieDarko]

I thought about this topic for a while and I think there are two approaches to building good young players.

1). Trial by fire. Give them regular first team action. They will either swim or sink.

2). Only buy real quality. Guys you can see making a difference 4-6 years down the road. Wenger as mentioned above is great at this. It really does not matter where they are from (Wenger gets French and African guys probably because that is where his strongest connections lie).

Our policy seems to be buying lots and lots of decent players hoping some of them will develop into good players. The jury is still out for me but I personally do not think it will work.

[Paul C]

I t really don't matter where they're from just whether they're good enough! Does it matter that Sissoko is from Mali? No but he's Good enough! Did it matter that Rush was from Flint(Wales)? no because he was good enough! My point is I don't matter the biggest problem we seem to have is that the youngsters we have don't appear to good enough! That is maybe why Rafa isn't giving them a game? Are our scouts good enough? Is the coaching good enough?
I was personally hoping to see more of Paul Anderson this season but now we're out of both domestic cups that seems highly unlikely now.   

Sissoko is French but chooses to play for Mali cos thats where his parents are from, regards Anderson I knnow what your saying mate cos he does look ok from what I've seen lfc.tv.

[SouthCoastShankly]

Anderson is a great player, actually pretty much all of the youth team who won the FA Youth cup are good - Hobbs, Roque, Antwi, etc. The problem I have is why do we not see them.

When we brought Anderson and Hobbs they were touted as the next big english talent. Surely they are old enough to be used in the first team more?

[stmichael]

Looking at the myriad of young foreign lads coming through at Arsenal, I remembered an article in the Pink Echo a few weeks back by Bascombe, apparently we have around forty scouts in the merseyside area and SIX throughout the rest of the world!

Disturbingly, Bascombe seemed to suggest that this policy was in someway entrenched and that Rafa was still only aforded limited control to reshape things behind the scenes due to, according to Bascombe 'past experience'

Rafa has made great strides in restructuring the reserves and recruiting young players, we need to take stock from these continuing defeats and the fact that below our top half dozen players we have little going on.

I thought Peltier and Guthrie played okay in a difficult game, but they looked like amateurs compared to some of those Arsenal kids in terms of physique, ball control and tactical awareness - lads their own age or younger.

There's a vast gulf between ourselves and Arsenal in that regard.

I thought Arsenals kids made our first teamers look like amatuers to be honest. Technically so much better and physically sound. Immense and Arsenal are going to have some future if they continue to be developed correctly.

Wenger has to be the best talent spotter out there.

[Scottbot]

Why do so many posters make so many assumptions about out young players? Take Paul Anderson, is he a 'great player?' How the hell would we know? A couple of decent performances for the youth team and the fact he arrived with a decent rep and every man and his dog seems to think he should be in the first team. Is Rafa in his blindness and stupidity simply holding back this precocious young talent? or is it possible that he receives regular reports on Anderson's progress, watches the lad himself as often as he can and has come to the conclusion that he simply isn't ready for first team action? Same goes for Hobbs, Antwi and the rest of the kids. We really don't know, not even if you've been to watch a couple of Academy games.

[account deleted by request]

Rafa is not in charge of the Academy and has no control over it. Strange but true.

[woof woof !]

From the little i've seen of Anderson and from what I've heard of Hobbs they both seem to have great potential . How we develope and extract that potential is another story . Should they both be farmed out on loan ? Should they like the Arsenal youngsters be given opportunities in certain competitions ? .

England took Walcott to the world cup and yet Arsenal continued to nurse him . Perhaps as some have said our whole youth policy is in need of a complete overhaul .

[Pedro O'Maradona]

This is an interesting thread and it must be said that the last few years we havent been producing the goods in comparison to say arsenal. I think it must be pointed out that since the FA youth cup winning team in the mid 1990s there hasnt been too many outstanding success's. Gerrard appears to be the last big name. Then again Utd havent produced too many homegrown stars since the likes of Neville, Beckham, scholes came thru the youth ranks at the same time. I think the comparison with Wengers youth policy is also a little unfair considering that Wenger is at arsenal over ten years compared to Rafas three seasons. Also Rafa has begun to look at young players from outside such as rocque, untwi, palleta, etc so I think he is moving in the right direction by looking over a wider geographical area than previous managers did. Obviously these players have talent its how its nurtured when they get to anfield is the thing. I think a bit like any signing there is an element of luck involved, a player who might look an outstanding prospect at 16 might not turn out to be that way at 23. Look how le tallec and pongo have turned out, they havent really filled their potential considing they were so highliy regarded a few years ago at youth level. I dont know how it is how the Arsenal set up is organised but there young players coming through seem to be all confident on the ball and know what they are doing, playing the way that wenger wants. pass and move, pass and move, and can slot into the first team with relative ease. From what I hear ,Wenger trusts his players to have the intelligence to do the right things on the park and lets them express themselves when it comes to football, this is learned in the arsenal academy and maybe Liverpool can learn from this. Personally I think the premiership has changed a lot in the last number of years whereas years ago it was a case of having the best players in the UK and Ireland to be the best in England now it is a case of having some of the best talent in the world to compete with the best teams in the Premiership. Wenger realised this very early and brought in the likes of Petit, Viera, Anelka (turned them into world class) and later Henry, and later again Fabergas and the likes. Liverpool have been playing catch up and up until rafa arrived the emphasis on scouting has largely been UK based particularly near Liverpool. Whereas this has been a great success, Fowler, Carra, Owen, and Gerrard etc its still a small catchment area to be concentrating on and maybe we need to take a leaf from Arsenal or Ajax put more emphasis lon ooking at Africa, South America, Asia, etc for young talent in the first place. How they get on at the academy and later at Melwood remains to be seen.

[Crouchamania]

I watched Anderson in the youth cup games and he certainly has talent. However what we need from a striker is a natural born goalscorer more than anything and i doubt Anderson will be one of them. Still i could be wrong.

[woof woof !]

I think most of us would agree that in pure footballing terms when they're on song Arsenal are a joy to watch (provided they're not playing us   ) . What was particularly worrying about Arsenals display last night was how their "youth" team displayed all the quality and ability to follow the pattern that Wenger and the seniors have laid down for them .

I think we are years away from Arsenal in terms of scouting and development . For the forseeable future we are going to have to rely on cash, inspired signings and dumb luck .

F'uck knows where it's gonna come from 

[destro]

Just  as a matter of interest the team arsenal played last night cost just over 10million. Toure 150,000 Almunia 500,000, Fabregas 2.5million, Song 2.5million, Walcot 5million ( Walcotts price rumoured to eventually be as high as 12million ). Although there are afew whos fee is undisclosed. Our team cost over 27million