Football Special Report: Back to the ‘http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809 way’ under Kenny Dalglish (Part 4)
There is plenty of optimism about the future now that Kenny is in charge. He came out last week and voiced his opinion on the current playing squad. According to him this bunch of players are too good to be in 13th place and believes there is
plenty of talent coming through the academy.
He praised the work done by Rafa during his time and also heaped praise on the work of Frank McParland (Director Liverpool FC Academy), Pep Segura (Academy Technical Manager) and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Rodolfo-c31415 Borrell (Academy Under-18 Coach).
“I wouldn’t go and say there are any kids who played in the Youth Cup against Crystal Palace who are going to be in the first team yet, but the progress at the Academy in the last year and a half has been absolutely fantastic,” said Kenny.
“That’s great credit to Rafa who brought in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pepe-c29670 Segura, Rodolfo Borrell and Frank McParland,” said Kenny. “He reorganised the whole Academy and you can see the benefit in the kids now. It’s fantastic to see.”
Kenny was brought back to the club by Rafa Benitez some 20 months ago as an ambassador of the club, so suggesting Kenny has been out of game for too long makes little sense. In fact, he was heavily involved with the academy and played a part in bringing
in players such as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wilson-c36932 and Jonjo Shelvey to the club.
With Kenny now in charge, the likelihood of seeing some of the youngsters breaking through to the first team is higher. We have already seen http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jonjo-Shelvey-c19081 has been a regular from the
bench as well.
Last week, Kenny invited two of the academy prospects, Suso and Conor Coady to the first team training at Melwood. They had a kick around with the likes of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Joe-Cole-c18694. These little things can only lift the spirits of these young players,
who would know that the first team manager keeps an eye on them.
Hodgson, who believed in experience, only used the young players in Europa league. He signed players who are nearing the twilight years of their careers. The average age of the players he signed was 30 and during the 21 league games, the average age of Roy’s
starting eleven was 28.
However, during Rafa’s time it never exceeded 26.5 and guess what, the average age of the team that played on Saturday was 26.3 (although http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jay-Spearing-c18106, who started last week).
Some fans have complained at the fact the Johnson is played as a left back as opposed to the popular view of playing him as a right winger, just in front of Martin Kelly. There was some scepticism too when the news came that Christian Poulsen was starting
in the midfield for Liverpool on Saturday.
However, Kenny is slowly but surely getting his message across. His is mixing it really well at the moment and once Gerrard is back, it will look a lot more different and effective in the midfield.
He is getting the balance of the team right and playing the right formation with the right players. There is no hiding from the fact the Liverpool need at least 5 first team players to challenge for honours once again but a couple in the current transfer
window could do Liverpool and Kenny a huge favour.
Luck plays a vital role in the success of any team and if Kenny gets any of that, he can certainly steer Liverpool back to where they belong. The win over http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wolves-c40952 was evidence of the direction the club is moving under Dalglish and it rightfully fills everyone
associated with the club with great belief and optimism.
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