Liverpool’s senior team got the weekend off ahead of their FA Cup third round match on Monday against Barnsley. Fans of the club, though, didn’t need to wait for Liverpool-related action as the U18s played their first match of the new year against Stoke’s U18s on Saturday.
It was a pretty interesting affair as the Young Reds went down by two goals early, only to storm back and win the match by netting four unanswered goals. It’s the type of attacking prowess – and never quit mentality – that fans
of the team love and, at least when it comes to performances at the senior level, seem to have been a bit lacking this season.
Of course, as we’ve noted pretty often here, results aren’t the most important thing when it comes to youth development. More often, you’ll be looking at individual players’ growth in their understanding of the game, their role in it, and the progression of any particular skills required to master their position. Generally, what you’d like to see is if the players – individually as well as collectively – can not only implement the game plan, but can also troubleshoot issues in real time.
To put it differently: having a young team go down early and then find a way to gain a foothold and mount a comeback is really the type of thing that the folks on the development side will love seeing. The team, in essence, found ways to address weaknesses in their set-up and not merely diagnose the issues, but counter them in real time.
It seems straightforward because this is, after all, the baseline for any type of success to be found in this game. But for those in charge of directing and molding these players into athletes that, hopefully, have long careers, this is precisely the type of result you’d hang your hat on.
Here’s hoping that the group can continue to grow and progress from this outcome with perhaps one of of those players who showed something special on the day eventually breaking through into the senior team.
