Liverpool FC Forum

its the policy of most big teams now to hoover up all sorts of young talent and stick them in the reserves and the academy to see if any make the grade. most of the players in the list fit into that category. so whittling it down to those brought in to go straight into the first team squad we have:

Djimi Traore
Gregory Vignal
El Hadji Diouf
Milan Baros
Florent Sinama Pongolle
Anthony Le Tallec
Mohamed Sissoko
Mark Gonzalez
Lucas Leiva
Nabil El Zhar
Emiliano Insua
Ryan Babel
David Ngog
Sebastian Coates*
Luis Alberto*
Emre Can*
Lazar Marković*
Phillipe Coutinho

not such a terrible list anymore, is it? lucas, can and coutinho are very much an important part of our first team squad and i think markovic will get there. with origi we'll just have to wait and see. sissoko was part of the 'best midfield in the world' song and was an excellent player for us. babel, baros, traore, el zhar, ngog, diouf, pongolle and coates never became anything spectacular but each played their role in the squad over a few seasons. we can and should obviously do better, but to write it all off as an unmitigated disaster is unfair.

if anyone can be bothered i'd love to see a comparison with how many of the united, city, chelsea and arsenal under 20s signings have made the grade as well.

It was pointed out to me before that the reserves and youth setups are an economy of their own. Bringing in players of varying standards and coaching them before selling them for a profit. Occasionally we find a gem or two. It used to be more frequent. What changed in such a short time? Where's the Maccas, Fowlers and Owens that all came through close to each other? Those names grew up together (chuck in of course Gerrard, Carra, Jason Mac) and formed a formidable team. It was a footballing tradition that we seem to have lost. There's a link missing somewhere in the chain from youth to first team. A hole in the pipe that they're all slipping through or something.

the mancs will be asking themselves the same thing about giggs, beckham, the nevilles, butt and scholes. the ones that helped them have their best season ever. but what people forget is that also in that record breaking squad were the likes of michael clegg, ronnie wallwork, mark wilson and jonathon greening - all possibly brilliant youthful potential aswell.

the business of english football has changed so much over the last few years that our and theirs crops of amazing youth are a probably a thing of the best.

I find it hard to believe that the city of Liverpool has stopped creating footballers though. Is what they say true? English kids don't get a chance? The players we've mentioned above rose to the top because they were the best around. These days it's the 'lesser' teams that grow English players (before they get too big for their boots). Of course the 'lesser' teams always created players, West Ham bring a perfect example. Man U still use their academy but not to great effect. Other than that, the bigger teams seem to fish abroad. Why is that? What happened to our production line?

RedAnt » Tue May 05, 2015 12:19 pm wrote:I find it hard to believe that the city of Liverpool has stopped creating footballers though. Is what they say true? English kids don't get a chance? The players we've mentioned above rose to the top because they were the best around. These days it's the 'lesser' teams that grow English players (before they get too big for their boots). Of course the 'lesser' teams always created players, West Ham bring a perfect example. Man U still use their academy but not to great effect. Other than that, the bigger teams seem to fish abroad. Why is that? What happened to our production line?

Yeah its disappointing when you look at what we have turned out in the last 10 years. Its isn't just a problem with us though as it happens at most top clubs.
Greg dyke wants this changed from next year and wants to introduce a homegrown rule to ensure the future of the national team.
As it stands the lower clubs like leicester, hull, Qpr etc are full of homegrown players but the higher you go the less their is. In his proposal I think he wants a third of the squad to qualify. We are ok as we have 9 which will just keep us above the breadline. If those rules were implemented now 6 clubs would be in trouble and they are Chelsea with only 3, Spurs with 4, City have 6, while southampton arsenal and newcastle have 8. Manure and the Bitters have 9 like us.

This if/when enforced will drive up the prices of english talent to ridiculous levels, worse than what we see now.

Been named in worst XI of the season from Ligue 1 by L'Equipe

RedAnt » Tue May 05, 2015 11:19 am wrote:These days it's the 'lesser' teams that grow English players (before they get too big for their boots). Of course the 'lesser' teams always created players, West Ham bring a perfect example. Man U still use their academy but not to great effect. Other than that, the bigger teams seem to fish abroad. Why is that? What happened to our production line?

The top teams cant afford to take chances with young talents as they tend to be inconsistent, yet they try to buy everything with a shred of talent as they hope to save money by getting them before they establish themselves as a top player. Getting the money from the CL spot is so important that most top teams dont dare take a chance on younger players. The best talents are vasted away playing useless reserve games for the big clubs when they could have played regular competitive football that would do wonders for their development at a smaller club. The big clubs along with the stupid young players and their greedy agents have ruined plenty of young talented footballers. These young players get tempted by offers from big clubs at a very young age, but what they should do is stay at a club where they can get regular football until they are good enough to be in the first team of a big club. At the very least they should demand to be loaned out to smaller clubs if they are not playing regular football. Reserve team football is a joke. The big clubs should learn from spain and get reserve teams that play in the lower divisions to give their talents a chance at real competitive football.

Doeboy » Mon May 25, 2015 9:24 am wrote:Been named in worst XI of the season from Ligue 1 by L'Equipe

I'm all for giving the lad a chance, but feck me he's had a poor year in France...

Raheem on stilts lol ..Not sure what to make of him, seemed to have potential but so have the other half million

With what looks like ok-to-good players signing up, where is Origi going to fit in?

Bench? January loan out?

Has anyone actually watched a full match with him playing the 90 mins?

That's the problem he doesn't fit in anywhere.

At club level 17 goals in 73 appearances, is a pretty underwhelming figure.

Yes you can argue he is only 20yo, but he is a striker for crying out loud and that goal-to-match ratio is pretty alarming.

We should never have bought him, especially for a crazy 10m!

Watched every game Belgium played at the WC, and he was nothing special outside scoring that 1 goal.

I'm not expecting him to do anything and will be another Luis Alberto type signing.

Origi right now will provide back up to a central striker

He is offers something different with his ability to hold the ball up and does what Balotelly fails to do - runs the channels all day long - he is a link up player who will bring others into the game and allow midfield players to run off him

A combination of Ings , Sturridge , Origi plus one other will provide a range of options up front including players who can play as a lone striker or in a front three or two - along with players like Lallana , Fermino , Coutinho and Ibe provide a very good range of attacking options

Just need the deadwood shifted - Balotelli , Borini , Lambert the first players to go

Boy oh boy he looked awful against Adelaide United.

I know they are meaningless training runs but Ings showed more 10-15 minutes than Origi did in a whole hour.

eds » Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:27 am wrote:Boy oh boy he looked awful against Adelaide United.

I know they are meaningless training runs but Ings showed more 10-15 minutes than Origi did in a whole hour.

He's been with us two minutes so lets castigate the lad !! WHINGE WHINGE FKG WHINGE 

Just a bit of a reminder for the resident WHINGEMEISTER !! 

As for Benteke if you actually take the time to read what I said you will see that I am not crticising the player. You whinge on and on about our transfer system and whilst I agree with virtually none of your depressingly negative drivel it has to be recognised that Benteke has been a failure and a round peg in a square hole. The mess I refer to is buying a player that is very similar to Carroll in playing style and not learning from that mistake. This is what really needs to change. Wholesale changes are not necessary because players like Origi could easily have been overlooked using another system. Nothing is perfect!!

There's a player in Origi. It is just that we have to be careful with him. Bring him on in games so that he can use his pace and power against tiring opposition.

Now if only Rodgers uses his full allocation of substitutes in a game (statistically he makes around 2 subs per game. There were loads of games last season where he made only 1 sub....even in games we were losing).