Liverpool u19 0 Barnsely u19 2 (Sep 30 2000)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL U19 0 Barnsley U19 2

Report by Dave Usher at the Academy

Scorer(s) - Half Time - 0-1 Venue - The Academy Date - Sat 30 Sep 2000 Star Man - John Miles

 

 

 

 

 

Paying a visit to the club's state of the art Academy in Kirkby is something I've been meaning to do for about a year or so now. In fact, it was second only to 'create a website' on my 'things to do list.' Sadly, at the time of writing the website is still no more than a distant pipe dream (obviously things have moved on a lot since I penned this report - you wouldn't be reading this otherwise!), but at least I made it to Kirkby to watch the under 19's, and although the game itself was an absolute shocker, I expect I'll be a more frequent visitor to the Academy from now on.

It's a magnificent facility, and the pitch that the under 19's played on is as good as the one Anfield, if not better. It's a far cry from the school playing fields used by the blueshite's youngsters anyway! The most disappointing thing, apart from the lads piss poor display, was that both the under 17's and the under 19's were playing at the same time.

I had hoped to see both teams playing, but sadly I had to make a choice. I chose the under 19's, figuring that these lads are higher up on the ladder to first team football, and also because John Miles and Ian Armstrong would be playing. I always enjoy watching those two play for the reserves, so that made my mind up for me.

I should have watched the other game though, which was a 3-3 thriller apparently. The under 19's lost 2-0 to Barnsley, and to be honest it could, and should, have been a lot worse. Barnsley hit the woodwork three times, and reds keeper Peter Crookes had to pull off a couple of smart saves to keep the score down.

The reds cause wasn't helped by the sending off of their skipper, right back Peter Cavanagh, for a late, high tackle on one of the Barnsley lads. It was a bad tackle, but it wasn't deliberate, and I'm sure the ref only produced a red card because the Barnsley lad was screaming in pain for about five minutes. He was obviously in a bad way, and I felt for the lad, but the ref should make a decision based on what he sees, and given what he had allowed to go unpunished prior to that incident, Cavanagh can feel a bit aggrieved.

Some of the tackles that go flying in in these games are unbelievable. The lads don?t hold back at all, and it's lucky that we don't have the likes of Rennie or Poll in charge of these games, or we'd be watching five a side games every week.

The reds were one nil down at the time of the sending off, and it was always going to be a tall order for them to come back against a Barnsley side who looked a lot bigger and stronger than our boys. That's not to say they were an alehouse team, far from it. They played some good stuff and cut through the reds defence seemingly at will in the first half.

Their opening goal came from a poor backpass from reds centre half Paul Culshaw, who didn't have the best of games it has to be said. I've spoken to people who've seen him play before, and they reckon he's a pretty solid player usually, so I must have caught him on a bad day. He wasn't alone though.

To be honest, the only Liverpool player who really impressed me on the day was Miles. 'Milesy' has been training at Melwood for about six months, and has looked really good in the reserves. He was even given a few first team run outs in friendly games, but apparently, he's recently been sent back to the Academy. I don't know why, but hopefully he'll be back at Melwood before too long, as he's a fine prospect.

He played in midfield in this game, and struggled to get into the game early on, but his work rate was tremendous and in the second half he did everything he could to get the reds back into the game. He's a clever player, who has an uncanny ability to find space and create chances for others. He usually plays up front, and he's naturally suited to playing as a second striker, where he can drop off and exploit the space between the defence and midfield.

His regular strike partner in the junior sides is Ian Armstrong, who ironically has just made the opposite journey to Miles and has been training at Melwood recently with the first team. Armstrong is a quick, lively player who reminds me a little of Paul Walsh. He has a big reputation and is an England youth international, but in this game he had absolutely no space to play in at all.

At times, it resembled a schoolboy game on the local park, as for much of the game, all 20 (and then 19) outfield players were within about thirty yards of each other. I don't know whether it's always like this, but on this evidence Armstrong probably finds it easier playing in the reserves, as he has a lot more room to play in. He did show some nice touches, but was starved of service and didn't have much of a look in. There was one brilliant run in the second half though, where he cut in from the corner flag and beat three defenders before hitting a rasper just over the bar.

'Army' was also responsible for the funniest moment of the game when the Barnsley keeper rolled the ball out of his box, but stood there waiting for someone to close him down before he kicked it. They were 2-0 up and he was obviously timewasting, but Armstrong wasn't impressed. "Just fuckin' kick it yer tit" he shouted, much to my amusement!

You can get really close to the pitch at the Academy, so you hear all kinds of things which you would never hear at a first team game. It was also pretty entertaining watching Hughie McAuley tearing his hair out on the sideline as pass after pass went astray, not to mention the stick he gave the linesman after he got an offside decision horrendously wrong.

The fact that these were the most entertaining aspects of my trip to the Academy is a sign of how poor the game was. The young reds performance was uncannily like those we have seen from the first team so far this season. Sloppy defending, no width and very little creativity in the side. Barnsley's second goal early in the second half came from slack marking from a corner kick, another feature of the first team's play this season. It was disappointing because the side contained some really good prospects.

Jon Otsemobor is a very highly rated defender, who really impressed me on his reserve team debut against Villa a few weeks ago, but he didn't look good at all in this game. He's very quick, and is a good footballer, but he was far too casual at times, and was regularly caught dwelling in possession.

Maybe because he played so well in the reserves it's gone to his head a little, and he thinks games like this are too easy for him, I dont know. The club have very high hopes for him though, and if he is getting a bit complacent I expect they'll knock that out of him soon enough. He's definitely one to keep an eye on, and I think we'll be hearing a lot more about him.

Another player with a big reputation is young Irish midfielder Michael Foley, or 'Axel' as he's known to his team-mates. Apparently, this lad trained with the first team when he was just 15, and a lot is expected of him in the years ahead. Last year he was in the under 17's, but along with Otsemobor, the coaches decided it was too easy for them and promoted them to the under 19's a year early.

I'd heard about Foley's reputation, and had formed this impression in my mind of a 'Joe Cole' type prodigy. In fact, he's not that type of player at all. He's a steady midfield player with a good left foot and is a good passer of the ball. On the two occasions I've seen him play, he's done nothing fancy or out of the ordinary, but he always seems to find a team-mate and rarely loses possession. Whether or not he's got more to his game than that I don't know, I suspect he has but it's hard to judge on just two games.

I had been hoping to see Chris O'Brien and John Welsh in action, but unfortunately neither were involved. Welsh is only 16, but is considered so good that he has been switched to the under 19's this season, and I'm not sure, but I think he's last year's 'Ian Frodsham Award' winner. I've seen O'Brien play once before, a couple of years ago in a youth cup game, and he reminds me quite a bit of Jamie Redknapp. Apparently though, unlike Jamie, O'Brien can also play in defence (although Glenn Hoddle would probably disagree with me there. Remember his 'sweeper' experiment?).

Both the Academy teams results this season have been crap, and it's not very encouraging when you see the likes of Barnsley coming to our place and winning (and is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that every young lad in Yorkshire is called Nathan, or more specifically "Nerth"?).

Obviously the most important thing is to bring players through, and people will point out that it's no good having an all conquering youth side if none of them come through to the first team. That's a fair point, but I would suggest that if you have an all conquering youth side then there will almost certainly be a few players who will come through.

The 1996 FA Youth Cup winning side for instance, produced Owen, Carragher, Thompson and Newby. Jamie Cassidy would have made it too, but for serious injury probems, and both Gareth Roberts and Andy Parkinson are doing well at Tranmere. So whilst I would agree that results are not the be all and end all of youth team football, I would also argue that success breeds success.


TEAM: Peter Crookes; Peter Cavanagh, Paul Culshaw, Jon Otsemobor, Jamie Olsen; John Miles, Tony Morton, Michael Foley, Steve Torpey (Zak Whitbread), Ian Armstrong (Neil Prince), Neil Mellor (Chris Thompson):



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