Liverpool u18 5 Bolton u18 2 (Nov 10 2007)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL U18 5 Bolton u18 2

Report by Dave Usher at the Academy

Scorer(s) - Nathan Eccleston (2), David Amoo (2), Marvin Pourie Half Time - 3-1 Venue - Liverpool Academy, Kirkby Date - Sat 10 Nov 2007 Star Man - Astrit Ajdarevic

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liverpool’s u18 side gave another powerful demonstration of the rich potential within its ranks, as they brushed aside Bolton Wanderers 5-2 at the Academy on Saturday morning. The visitors more than played their part in a brilliant spectacle, particularly in a first half where both sides seemed to be able to create chances at will. In the end, Liverpool’s extra firepower got them through, as doubles from Nathan Eccleston and David Amoo plus another goal from Marvin Pourie secured the win.

The squad this year is a real mix of home grown and imported talent. The 13 players used against Bolton included four local lads, two Irishmen, two Swedes, a cockney, an Aussie, an Argentine, a German and a Spaniard. All played their part in this victory and there looks to be some real talent at Hughie McAuley’s disposal this year. With another handful of starlets due to arrive in January, selecting a side for the youth cup is going to be very difficult. Maybe we can enter two teams this year!

McAuley made a few changes from the side that drew with Everton last weekend. Daniel Ayala came in at centre back, meaning Steve Irwin switched to right back in place of Mattone Awang who dropped to the bench. Dean Bouzanis replaced Martin Hansen in goal, and recent recruit from Real Madrid, Gerardo Bruna, came in on the left wing for Ben Parsonage.

It was blowing a gale at the Academy, and often I’ve seen games ruined by these kind of conditions. Yet it didn’t have too much of an impact this time, probably as most of the football was played on the floor.

The reds took only four minutes to create the first of what would be many good chances in the first half. Skipper Irwin crossed from the right wing, and an unmarked Amoo headed powerfully straight at the keeper. He should have scored, but he’d make amends later on.

Three minutes later Liverpool were in front. The imperious Astrit Ajdarevic won the ball on halfway and strode forward before picking out Eccleston in the box, who netted his 7th goal of the season.

Two minutes later it was almost 2-0, and once again Ajdarevic was the provider. His incisive through ball looking for Ecclestone was cut out at full stretch by a Bolton defender, but Pourie seized on the loose ball and hammered a shot just over the bar.

Ajdarevic was enjoying himself in the middle of the park, and was really pulling the strings for the reds. On 16 minutes he broke through the centre once more and played another brilliant defence splitting pass to Amoo who had made a good run inside the full back. The former Millwall frontman went round the keeper but his touch took him a little bit wider than he would have liked and his left foot shot struck the far post.

Bolton hadn’t managed to threaten much, but you could see from early on that their two frontmen were good players and would have to be watched. Topi Obadeyi is a man mountain of a striker, and he was a real handul, whilst Kevin Wolfe alongside him was a good foil and looks a clever player. Nevertheless, the first chance they had was not as a result of good play by them, but from a terrible mistake by Ayala. The young Spaniard never looked comfortable in the first half, and had some ropey moments, the worst of which saw him trod on the ball and lose out to Obadeyi. The powerful forward surged towards goal but was stopped in his tracks by a superb last ditch tackle by Joe Kennedy.

Aside from that mini-scare, it had been all Liverpool. The attacking players were linking up to great effect, and on 20 minutes Pourie released Eccleston through the inside right channel, and he flashed a shot across the keeper and inches wide of the far post.

A minute later, Bruna showed some lovely awareness in midfield to slip a perfect pass between two players into the path of Ajdarevic. A neat piece of skill saw him move away from a would be tackler, before once more he picked out a forward runner in the shape of Pourie. The German nutmegged the defender but his shot was smuggled away by the keeper for a corner.

Marvin was giving Bolton’s defence major problems, and two minutes he was on the scoresheet thanks to a wonderful individual goal. The ball was played to him with his back to goal near the halfway line, but he turned his man brilliantly and raced through to score his fifth goal of the season. Not bad considering he missed three games through suspension.

Bolton pulled a goal back a minute later in bizarre circumstances. An overhit ball through the centre looked to be posing no danger, but Bouzanis inexplicably strayed too far from goal and found himself five yards outside his box. Even so, it looked like he could have just chested the ball down, but he got into a right mess and handled it. At a more senior level of football he’d have been sent off. He didn’t even get a talking to here.

Obadeyi dished out his own brand of punishment, as the free-kick was rolled back to him and he leathered it into the corner. It was some strike from the lad to be fair.

Pourie should have had a second eight minutes later. Another wonderful defence splitting pass by Ajdarevic sent him clear, he took the ball round the keeper but with the goal at his mercy produced a weak shot with his left foot that was easily cleared by the covering defender.

The pair combined well again a minute later, but this time Pourie was the provider as Ajdarevic played a 1-2 with him but his shot was saved by the under-siege Bolton keeper.

Four minutes later the keeper was beaten again. Bruna made a good run through the centre and laid the ball into Pourie’s feet. He was tackled as he went for goal, but Amoo had once again come in off his wing and latched onto the rebound, sending the ball into the far corner of the net via the post.

From the kick off, Obadeyi was a whisker away from one of the greatest goals I’ve ever seen. The ball was touched to him and he let fly from the centre circle. Bouzanis was backpeddling and may or may not have had it covered, but the ball cleared the crossbar by about an inch.

This was the start of a great spell for the visitors. Wolfe went close with a snapshot that was well tipped over the bar by Bouzanis, and the left winger went even closer when he got in behind Irwin and rounded the reds’ Aussie keeper. He’d done well, but he left himself with an almost impossible angle and his shot hit the post.

Bolton really had their tales up now, and a minute later Bouzanis had to make a good save to keep out Wolfe’s excellent 25 yarder. From the corner however, the keeper made a right mess of an attempted punch, sending the ball high up into the air before it landed on the crossbar and behind for another corner.

It was all Bolton now, and Liverpool were hanging on for the half time whistle. In stoppage time, Bouzanis again had to make a good save to keep Wolfe from adding his name to the scoresheet, and the young reds went into the break with a 3-1 lead after a pulsating 45 minutes of football.

The second half failed to match the standard of the first, but was still enjoyable to watch. Not much happened early on, and it was not until the hour mark that I had to write anything down on my notepad. The first half had seen me take down three pages of notes, which I believe is a first. The second half’s action I managed to fit onto one page, but that’s still not bad going by normal standards.

I mentioned how Ayala had struggled in the first half, but he was much, much better after the break and as a result Bolton’s frontmen were quieter than they had been in the first period. Equally, Bolton seemed to be a bit more secure at the back too, having taken off one of their centre backs at half time. The poor lad had been given the runaround by Pourie, but his replacement did a lot better.

Things had been relatively even at the start of the second half, as Ajdarevic’s influence waned somewhat and Pourie wasn’t getting quite so much joy either. Eccleston seemed to spend a lot of time pulling out to the left wing, the way Henry always used to do for Arsenal. With an hour gone, he produced a goal that even Henry would have been happy with. Some typically tenacious play from Highdale saw him win possession in the middle of the park, and he fed the ball early to Eccleston on the left. He ran at the defender, then cut inside and curled a great shot into the top corner from the edge of the area.

It was his eighth goal of the season, and Nathan is really laying down a marker for a place in the youth cup team. The club have brought in very good strikers from outside, such as Amoo from Millwall, Pacheco from Barca and Pourie from Dortmund, but Eccleston is outscoring all of them at the moment.


McAuley made his first substitution as the sides prepared to restart the game, withdrawing Bruna and sending on the promising Swede Alex Kakaniklic. Bruna may suffer from unfair expectation levels due to some sections of the Spanish press referring to him as Real Madrid’s answer to Lionel Messi. Messi is arguably the world’s best attacking player right now, and if Bruna turns out to be even half as good then we’ve done well to get him. He can do without the comparison though really, as it surely won’t do him any favours.

It’s difficult to make any kind of assessment based on watching him for an hour, but I liked what I saw even if he is nothing like Messi in terms of style of play. He wasn’t dribbling past five or six players every time he got the ball, in fact I don’t remember seeing him dribble past anyone. That’s not to say he can’t of course, as like I say you can’t really tell from watching the lad in one game.

What he did show was that he has great technique, good balance and a sweet left foot. Everything he did, he did very well, and the only problem was he was playing on the wing in a game where all our attacks came through the centre as that’s where we were getting so much success. Bruna didn’t see enough of the ball (through no fault of his own), but hopefully that will change next time he plays.

Ironically, his replacement did see a fair bit of the ball as the game got stretched and we got opportunities to counter attack. I liked the look of Kakaniklic, he’s skilful, fast and direct. Again though, it’s difficult to judge based on one cameo appearance.

The game became stretched because Bolton pulled a goal back on 67 minutes, and then decided to really go for it to try and get back into the game. The goal was scrappy, and somewhat fortuitous, as a hopeful shot from outside the box was deflected into the path of Wolfe, who took advantage to claim the goal that his performance had warranted.

McAuley then made his second change, sending on Irishman Michael Collins to replace Pourie. With Bolton pushing forward there were plenty of gaps to exploit on the counter, and Kakaniklic wasted a great opportunity when he raced clear of the defence down the left. The Swede had shown impressive pace and control in getting clear of the full back, but having delayed the pass initially when it was on, I felt he should have had a go himself when he’d gotten clear. Instead he tried to find Eccleston but didn’t put enough on his cutback and a defender nipped in to take it off the frontman’s toes and deny him what would have been a well deserved hat-trick.

A minute later the striker was hat-trick hunting again, when the Bolton keeper could only parry Highdale’s long range drive. Eccleston followed it in and almost got there first, but the keeper did well to get down and smother the danger.

Ajdarevic then fizzed a shot narrowly over from distance, as he looked to claim his third goal of the season. His previous two also came from outside the box, and it looks like this is something he’s added to his game this season. If he can start banging in goals from the edge of the box, then the Paddy Berger comparison will become even more credible.

The reds wrapped the win up in stoppage time, and it was pretty much all down to the work of Amoo. He ran with the ball from the right wing, cut inside and ran all the way across the box to the left hand side, before laying the ball off to Collins. His shot was blocked, but the ball dropped at the feet of Amoo who almost nonchalantly controlled and then prodded the ball past the keeper. It was a cool finish, and his seventh goal of the season. Considering he’s been on the wing for many of his games, it’s an impressive goal return.

He isn’t a traditional winger, that much is obvious when you see him play. He’s a striker, and he has that striker’s instinct as he showed with both goals in this game. He doesn’t stay on the wing when the ball is on the other side, he likes to get in the box and he could easily have had four goals against Bolton. He had the header that went straight at the keeper, and he hit the post as well as scoring twice. All of those chances came from him moving from the wing and getting into the box.

He was one of several candidates for the star man award. At half time Ajdarevic was miles ahead, but he had a quieter second half and his midfield partner Highdale came to the fore a lot more with his tackling and energy. Eccleston was very good, and I thought Kennedy played well at the back again.

In the end though, Ajdarevic’s scintillating first half performance gets him the vote. With Damian Plessis’s injury leaving the reserve squad a little short of midfielders, it surely can’t be long before the talented Swede gets the call up to Gary Ablett’s reserve squad.

Team: Bouzanis; Irwin, Ayala, Kennedy, O’Connor; Amoo, Highdale, Ajdarevic, Bruna (Kakaniklic); Pourie (Collins), Eccleston: