EIGHT Liverpool players that started in the 3-2 win over Spurs were aged 25 and under. Five of them were under 22. Remarkable numbers in a sport where trust is traditionally placed in experience for high-pressure games such as the one Anfield witnessed on Tuesday night.
Philippe Coutinho, Alberto Moreno – 22. Emre Can – 21. Lazar Markovic – 20. Jordon Ibe – 19.
Raheem Sterling, 20, who has played the second most minutes of any other outfield Liverpool player this season behind the 24 year-old Jordan Henderson and wasn’t even on the field this time.
Just remarkable that such a young core of players — all of whom contributed significantly to the win — refused to yield against the most vibrant Spurs side to come to Anfield since the departure of Gareth Bale. They refused to give up. That winning goal, poked in by Mario Balotelli, who is still only 24 himself.
Last season Brendan Rodgers received untold credit for coaching a core set of players into being better than the sum of their parts. He improved individual elements and made the team stronger as a result. It was put down to hard work on the training pitch, for which there was ample opportunity last season with Liverpool barely ever playing more than twice in a seven=day period.
The early season struggles were put down in some quarters to the lack of that crucial commodity to make this recipe flourish; time. And yet, the fixture list has continued to be cruel on Liverpool. Saturday’s FA Cup fifth round tie at Crystal Palace will be their 18th fixture in 66 days — a game every 3.7 days — the most of any other side in Europe over this period.
Rodgers has never had less time in his Liverpool career to coach a team on the training pitch, and yet he has overseen a period in which the Reds have played 15 games across all competitions, winning nine, drawing five and losing just once — against this season’s sure runaway Premier League champions. After extra time.
This has been achieved via a different means from last season’s fabled run-in which brought 11 straight wins. Success then was down to a nucleus of players that had been at the club for at least a year or more — Mamadou Sakho and Simon Mignolet the two exceptions — players that Rodgers implicitly trusted with taking his instructions onto the pitch.
The upturn in form has come with Rodgers backing himself, backing his summer signings and placing trust in those he could not during the autumn. Three of the five under-22 players on Tuesday night were summer signings, and one of them has only been involved in the day-to-day first-team set up for barely a month. It is a very different strategy to what was in place last season, let alone in the autumn.
And it is the recently recalled Jordon Ibe who has been the embodiment of this fresh approach. The way he has seamlessly slotted into the first-team setup, his direct approach, his buzzy nature off the ball and the zip with which he carries the ball forwards — he possesses all the traits that Rodgers looks for in a footballer and he has saved his manager a fortune.
The clamour for Liverpool to invest in new signings in January was overwhelming — Xherdan Shaqiri, Yehven Konoplyanka and Saido Berahino were all linked, would have cost tens of millions of pounds and offered no guarantee of an immediate impact on a team that needed a short-term boost.
There was a needless overreaction to Ibe’s recall from Derby, with many arguing that the move would stunt his encouraging development under Steve McClaren at Derby. In reality it has done anything but, and it makes perfect sense that a youngster identified with a long-term vision in mind, nurtured by a youth set-up that always has the end-goal of the first-team in mind, should make that instant impact that supporters crave from new signings.
Ibe is a victory for the much-maligned loan system, a system which more and more resembles a lottery of success, and for the youth recruitment and coaching at Liverpool. The 19 year-old, plucked from Wycombe Wanderers in 2011 at the age of 16, and amid strong competition from Manchester City, by Frank McParland, is yet another example of a young player brought in with attributes that can slot straight into the first-team. Jerome Sinclair and Sheyi Ojo have similar profiles to Ibe and also like to play with that pace and intensity; it is clear to see how they will slot into the first team in due course.
The difference between the Ibe that left for Derby in the summer and the one that arrived back at Melwood in January was exponential. McClaren was the perfect coach for him — Rodgers and the club deserve credit for picking the right setup for Ibe’s game to blossom — and he recently said: “When he first came, we gave Jordon one ball and the team the other. Now, he has learnt how to be a team player and that he needs an end product to his game.”
That end product will always need working on, but the signs have been positive. His ability to hit the byline and cut the ball back created a number of Liverpool’s best opportunities against Spurs, and resulted in Daniel Sturridge back heeling the ball against the post in the first half. His perfectly weighted through-ball for Adam Lallana in the build up to Balotelli’s winner shows the improvement in his decision-making that McClaren alluded to.
How his qualities fit the template of this side are evident by the fact he has completed 11 successful take ons in only 200 minutes of Premier League action, and had five shots on goal despite playing at right-wing back for the majority of that time. That eagerness to bring the ball forward from the back has been a feature of the 3-4-3 under Rodgers, a characteristic that has seen Lazar Markovic and Emre Can thrive in particular.
Should it really be any surprise that it is these younger summer signings — Markovic, Can and Moreno — who are currently excelling, while those expected to make an immediate impact — Dejan Lovren, Lallana and Balotelli — have struggled? The way Liverpool play demands so much in terms of pace, movement and pressing that it’s a difficult skill to immediately master, and the younger you are, the less ingrained your previously coached instructions are, then the easier it is to adapt to it.
Rodgers has always looked to give youth its chance at Anfield and he threw the gauntlet down to a 19 year-old in two of the biggest games of the Reds’ season — a Merseyside Derby and a punch-for-punch top four clash. His faith has been emphatically rewarded by Ibe, who represents not only a victory for the loan system but for Liverpool’s youth recruitment and for coaching that prioritises the future of the first-team.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
I haven’t honestly seen much change in Ibe’s performances recently to his performances in the summer, other than the change in position – he was equally positive and adventurous during his appearances in pre-season.
I can’t remember any of the reserve players stepping into the first team and looking so well out of their depth, even when we’ve brought in some of the reserves’ lesser lights such as Spearing or Flanagan. And it is for this reason that I’ve always expressed concern at LFC’s logic in continually spending big money on ‘depth’, rather than just trusting to reserves to provide that depth, and instead focusing any money on legitimate first class talent.
While the lads who have stepped up have done well there is nowhere near enough of them to justify your faith. Since 2010 only Wisdom, Sterling, Flanagan and Ibe (and only for the last few weeks ) have made an impact and are still at the club.(in some form)
A lot of lads looked like they might make it but have fallen by the wayside, Suso, Ngoo, Coady,Amoo,Adorjan, Sama spring to mind and i am sure there are others who i cannot recall.
The fact is playing as a professional in the premier league and especially at a club like Liverpool is akin to winning the lottery. I am amazed we get the small number through that we do.
No way can you justify not strengthening the squad when the opportunity arises.
“No way can you justify not strengthening the squad when the opportunity arises.”
I think his point is that the inexplicably vaunted ‘squad player’ very rarely improves the squad and usually goes out on loan 12 months later to be sold 12 months after that. Far better to give an u21 player a go before throwing yet another £7m at someone no one has ever heard of.
This is what does my head in. If we rewind back to May, August even, everyone was buzzing about Liverpool. Ok, there was ticket prices and Mighty Red which needed challenging but on the whole the incessant moaning about every aspect of the club had stopped. Everything you mention in the article is absolutely correct and deserves recognition and praise. We’ve all been over the early part of the season a thousand times. A couple of mistakes combined with bad luck had the effect of a sledgehammer in the skull. Yet, look where we are now. I’m not interested in knob jockeys saying we’re 7th or we drew against whoever. The truth is in the more recent games and it’s clear where we’re at. Sturridge coming in will make us stronger again. I’m not arsed that people now try and use the word transition as a whip to beat you, as they now do with agenda. We were in transition from a team to a squad and that’s all there is to it. We sometimes have £100m of players on the bench now. I’m confident they can all come in and do a job regardless of what’s gone. If we look at the last 2 years it’s absolutely amazing progress with a hideous blott on the landscape. I fail to understand how people can be anything other than optimistic but I’m starting to think I might know the answer. Liverpool’s fans are no different to an office of 100 people or your local community. It’s just a bunch of people, all different. A cross section of society as they say. You know from your own life there are some miserable bastards around who wallow in misery. You try and help them and offer them a realistic solution to whatever it is they’re moaning about but they decline your offer because they know it’ll work. That’s how life is and that’s how some fans are. Truth is, I do actually pity them. I wish we could all be happy. I wish we could all get behind the club, the manager, the players, the owners and the transfer committee, ahem. Nothing good ever comes from being divided. I’m not saying absolutely nothing at the club could be improved upon, far from it. Just saying we’ve got every right to confident for the future because we’re getting a lot of things right. Life’s too short to get full of resentment over LFC. Ok, it’s easily done but there’s no need to at the minute.
Amen!
A positive attitude can go a long way!
Wow, a real life philosophy lesson on TAW!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Haha, you’re welcome. After all, you were one of the miserable fuckers I had in mind.
Says Robin the uber fan.
If you didn’t always come across as the all knowing, all righteous lecturer all the time, then maybe I could concur with the admittedly good points you make.
As it is, you need Batman to get your head out yer arse and sift thru the shite to uncover the odd gem.
In other words, try eliminating the bullshit and get to the point.
Haha. Try smoking weed everyday for 25 years then eliminate the bullshit and write concisely. Sorry, not gonna happen.
excellent post.
It’s fantastic that we have all these young players with great potential in the team and have players that we’re actually not afraid to bring off the bench but until we are consistently challenging for the top honours year on year we will have achieved nothing.
I’ve seen it too many times in the past where you think it’s all coming good only to be let down again and again. Until our poor seasons are the negative “blips” on an otherwise positive trajectory then I’ll accept we are going somewhere.
We have achieved nothing…..yet.
Dear James Dutton,
Thank you for an article about LFC based on more than copy,cut and paste. Encore
I’m not knocking Ibe’s quality, as he clearly has talent and deserves to be on the pitch in a red shirt….. but is his inclusion also Rodgers way of saying to Sterling (after dropping the massive contract comment) that you’re not that special, we have plenty of young talent at the club, sign your contract and stop being a knob?!!
He may be a political manager, hell, he might have to be at our club, but I shouldn’t overthink things regarding Ibe. He’s earned his place.
Funnily enough, was talking about this after the game on Tuesday….I saw Ibe play pre-season at Preston last season (2013/4 season) and Sterling played in same game. Ibe actually looked the better prospect at the time, stronger, more direct, better finisher but that autumn, Sterling got a break into the first team and never looked back.
Ibe is going to be as good as Sterling, and hopefully Liverpool can keep both of them on the books.
If that happens, alongside the other young lads currently in the squad and those coming through, we’ll have one hell of a team
Might not win the league, but it’ll be fun watching us try!!
Good article, everything in life can have that positive/negative spin. Given what’s happening on the pitch we should be in an up beat mood. Robin C has caught it spot on as well.
I too was at Preston for that pre-season game and agree Ibe looked the better player that day. If we can keep hold of both him and Steriling defences will be crapping themselves. I have give up worrying over who will go or stay long ago. If they stay we will love em if they go fuck em I ain’t losing sleep because they are a tosser.
Ibe is full of pace, trickery and built like a brick shithouse it is going to be exciting seeing him grow and play. Barnesy was the last lad we had his size and with that pace and if Ibe gets half as good as him we will go far.
Thinking about development, youth and progression what’s happened to Flanno ? it’s all gone quiet for him.. Was looking awesome last season as well.