Liverpool’s Youngsters

Liverpool ‘s Youngsters

Liverpool has a tremendous wealth of talent coming through at youth level with the likes of Suso, Wisdom and Sterling making the break through this season at first team level. They have been fantastic this season making the massive step up to first team level when Liverpool’s squad was thread bare.

But in recent weeks Suso, Wisdom and Sterling have not featured for the first team and Brendan Rodgers has opted for more experience in his side. Rodgers will want to protect his younger players by not playing them every week, but will the younger players become regulars in the first team ?

When Kenny Dalglish took over for a second spell as manager at Anfield he gave a lot of youngsters a chance in the first team too. Jack Robinson, Jonjo Shelvey, Martin Kelly and John Flanagan are names that spring to mind that played regularly during Kenny’s early period in charge. But after Dalglish delved into the transfer market the younger players had to make way for Liverpool’s new signings.

I can see the same thing happening under Brendan Rodgers with the way he has used the youngsters initially until he brought Coutinho and Sturridge in the January transfer window. Rodgers obviously wasn’t impressed by Henderson and Downing when he arrived, but in fairness he has gave them a second chance and made them fight for a place in the team by using Suso and Sterling in their place, Wisdom deputised for the injuries to Martin Kelly and Glen Johnson earlier in the season and also for the loss of form to Jose Enrique.

Brendan Rodgers has been clever in the way that he has used the younger players to inspire the more experienced players to fight for their place in the team and now in the latter part of the season he is reaping the rewards of his method with Downing, Henderson and Enrique playing with a renewed desire and confidence.

It doesn’t matter what team you talk about, it is always going to be difficult for young players to become regulars in any team and Liverpool is no different. Liverpool will no doubt spend money in the summer to bring new players to strengthen the squad, and this will make it even tougher for the youngsters to feature in the first team.

With all the talent we have coming through at Liverpool it is of paramount importance that we don’t lose these talented youngsters to other clubs like we did with Tom Ince, although Ince was wanting first team football and Liverpool couldn’t promise a young player like him regular first team action.

We don’t want to see Liverpool letting young players go to other teams like Ince did and then want to buy them back a year or so down the line. Sending players out on loan gives the youngsters great experience and gives them first team action and will help them become better players.

If Liverpool can develop their youth in the right way to find another Carragher or Gerrard then it would be great for the club to see them reap the rewards of their youth system.

But it is not every day you unearth such players like Carragher or Gerrard. But under Brendan Rodgers I feel Liverpool have a manager that will give the youngsters a chance but at the same time protect the youngsters from burn out.

Suso and Sterling were a breath of fresh air when they broke into the first team but by playing regularly their form dipped and now they are back playing in the reserves and this is good management by Rodgers as he is protecting them by using them sensibly.

It doesn’t matter your age if you are good enough and Rodgers has acknowledged that this season and I’m sure he will develop more youngsters into his first team in the near future.

The youngters that are showing the potential to challenge for the first team at the moment are Ryan McLaughlin, Connor Coady, Jack Dunn, Sinclair and Yesil, but the most exciting looking prospect has to be Jordan Ibe, he is like John Barnes with electric pace and has maturity beyond his years.

But with the wealth of talent at youth level available to Liverpool the future can only be bright for Liverpool and it will be interesting to see how Brendan Rodgers graduates them into the first team. Watch this space.