Liverpool’s youngsters play Leicester City tonightin what’s likely to be a tough encounter. In the league match earlier this season at Melwood Leicester won 3-0 but it could have been more.
I expect a crowd close to 10,000 at the Walkers Stadium helped partly by the home team offering a freebie to 2,000 season ticket holders.
For readers who haven’t seen much of the young reds, here are seven things to look out for:
1. The strength of Leicester and how our midfield deals with it.
Leicester are a strong team and physical, but not dirty. Striker Adi Yussuf caught my eye earlier in the season but they dominated the reds all over the park.
Since then Rodolfo Borrell has had more time to get to know his team and convey his ideas better. But the midfield battle will be key. In the last round I felt we looked weak here.
2. Christopher Buchtmann
The blonde German was promoted to the reserves in the summer but hasn’t had much game time, partly due to international call-ups. He played on the right against Wolves in the third round which was tough for such a left-sided player. But if he can contribute and improve his all-round game, all the better. He can play in defence but is a good crossed with pace to take on defenders.
3. Andre Wisdom
An exciting talent who can play in a number of positions. I expect to see him at centre-half. He reads the game well, times his tackling and is good on the ball. Watch for him showing leadership qualities and possibly occupying different roles as the game progresses.
4. Tom Ince
I suspect it’s been a tough year for Ince but he rises to the occasion and took his goal well last time out. He’s not afraid of taking on defenders and shooting on sight. He can – and usually does – play across the frontline but is
most likely to play the Gerrard role.
5. Fullbacks
The fullback Flanagan and Robinson stood out last time and Robinson is a particularly accomplished footballer. They will add width where necessary and aren’t prone to nose-bleeds in the opposition box. They are solid defensively but can be caught out of position if an attack breaks down.
6. Formation
As an early indicator of the ‘one club’ philosophy the 4-2-3-1 formation is as good as it gets. It’s probably hardest for the deep lying centrebacks and the striker. But the young reds appear to be getting used to it and results have become more consistent.
7. The team peformance
Liverpool have been hugely successful in this competition in recent years but failed in the central objective: to develop players for the next stage. How many of the recent finalists are currently at Liverpool? It’s less than half. So don’t expect to see ‘the next Carra’ or ‘the next Gerrard’; just wish them luck and hope they can graduate to being a reserve team regular.
The game is exclusively live via the e-season ticket. If I don’t make it up there, I’ll be watching it online before writing my post-match analysis.
Related posts:
- Liverpool 5 – Leicester City 1 FA Youth Cup: not good enough
- Liverpool v Wolves FA Youth Cup analysis
- Liverpool v Manchester City reserves: post match analysis
- Liverpool reserves v Hull City post match analysis
- Stepping into the unknown: Liverpool season preview 2010-11
Tags: Academy, FA Youth Cup