Liverpool FC Forum

[Igor Zidane]

Liverpool beat Newcastle 4-2 in FA youth cup yesterday , great result that. Got tickets for the return leg at Anfield on 19 th march. If we get to the final again we play Man utd or Arsenal. COME ON YOUNG REDMEN!!!

[god_bless_john_houlding]

Liverpool's youth team is obviously one of the best in the country, so why doesn't Rafa give the odd one a chance in the 1st team?

[stoney]

Liverpool's youth team is obviously one of the best in the country, so why doesn't Rafa give the odd one a chance in the 1st team?

erm guthrie, peltier etc 

[god_bless_john_houlding]

Liverpool's youth team is obviously one of the best in the country, so why doesn't Rafa give the odd one a chance in the 1st team?

erm guthrie, peltier etc 

Agreed Guthrie and Peltier haven't been a great success but I still feel we have quality in the youth team so do we really need the likes of Zenden wearing our famous shirt. Also do we need to go out and buy forigen youth players?

[Ace Ventura]

Liverpool's youth team is obviously one of the best in the country, so why doesn't Rafa give the odd one a chance in the 1st team?

We all want to see young players breaking into the first team, and Rafa has made it a major priority reshaping the youth set up and bringing in younger players from other clubs both at home and abroad.
Anderson came from Hull with Hobbs from Lincoln and there are others being lined up like the young lad from Ross County.
Bringing in young lads from abroad is fine by me, its not as if we dont have plenty of foreign players in the first team so getting them at an early age helping develop there game the Liverpool way and paying far less to bring them in makes alot of sense.
Ok there are no guarantees that these players will settle at the club (Barragan) or prove good enough long term, but if we start getting players breking into the first team like Wenger has at Arsenal then i am sure there will be no complaints from anyone.

By the way which players from our youth team should Rafa be selecting ahead of Zenden ?
I am not a fan of Bolo at all, i think he is a limited player that doesnt offer enough to the game, but none of the kids i have seen so far seem physically up to playing Premiership games at this stage.

[EddieC]

It amazes me to sometimes read people criticising our youth setup because we can't field a team of 18-20 year olds who can cut it in the prem like Arsenal. People seem to forget Wenger's been in charge there for 10 years, and it's only the last 2-3 seasons we've started to see all their kids breaking through. Considering we are only half way through Rafa's third season, and on our way to a second successive youth cup final, I'd say Rafa's youth policy isn't doing too badly.

I notice someone else on here mentioning Guthrie & Peltier, I'd just like to point out they aren't part of the youth team that's doing so well. Our youth team is full of under 18's, the one's slightly older like Guthrie & Peltier are playing in our reserve team. For anyone who's interested our line up for the Newcastle game was: Martin Hansen, Stephen Darby, Michael Burns, Jay Spearing (capt), Robbie Threlfall, Charlie Barnett, Jimmy Ryan, Ryan Flynn, Craig Lindfield, Steve Irwin (Sean Highdale 84), Astrit Ajdarevic.

From what I've seen of our youth setup, injuries barring Flynn, Lindfield & (early days) Ajdarevic definately have the potential to go all the way. In the closer future we have Hobbs, Antwi, Roque, Anderson, Hammill & Brouwer to look forward to, hopefully one or two of them starting to break through next season. From what I can see, the future looks bright.

[dawson99]

Flynn looked like a great poacher in that match, definately one to look out for in the future methinks

[tubby]

Its nice to see them progressing the way they are but until i see any of them break into the first team (and not as a fringe player) i dont think its worth taking about. Lets hope 1 or 2 break through soon.

[peterc1992]

Everybodies talking bout arsenals youth but we won it last year and look to win it this year!

[RedBlood]

Astrit Ajdarevic made an assist for i think it was our second goal and if wayne rooney would have done it people would have been saying it was genius, i think this boy is one of our brightest prospects

[stmichael]

Liverpool's youth team is obviously one of the best in the country, so why doesn't Rafa give the odd one a chance in the 1st team?

We all want to see young players breaking into the first team, and Rafa has made it a major priority reshaping the youth set up and bringing in younger players from other clubs both at home and abroad.
Anderson came from Hull with Hobbs from Lincoln and there are others being lined up like the young lad from Ross County.
Bringing in young lads from abroad is fine by me, its not as if we dont have plenty of foreign players in the first team so getting them at an early age helping develop there game the Liverpool way and paying far less to bring them in makes alot of sense.
Ok there are no guarantees that these players will settle at the club (Barragan) or prove good enough long term, but if we start getting players breking into the first team like Wenger has at Arsenal then i am sure there will be no complaints from anyone.

By the way which players from our youth team should Rafa be selecting ahead of Zenden ?
I am not a fan of Bolo at all, i think he is a limited player that doesnt offer enough to the game, but none of the kids i have seen so far seem physically up to playing Premiership games at this stage.

The reality of the situation at the moment is there's no Owen or Gerrard. In years gone by, half the team would have a good chance of making it to the first team, but the way things are now I doubt any will become regulars. I don't reckon Carra would have come through if things were like they are now when he was 18. It's really tough these days.

Look at the calibre of players the young lads are competing with for a first team spot. Someone like Ajdarevic looks promising and could be very good in a few years, but he'd have to get past Alonso, Gerrard, Momo and Mascherano to get in our midfield. Spearing and Threlfall are both really good too, but it's hard enough for them to get a game for the reserves.

It doesn't help that the ressies league is so and so small either. Something has to be done about that, and if it were up to me I'd enter us into another league so there are more games for the young lads.