The new academy setup is going to take years of careful planning and hard work to realise its ambition. The removal of Steve Heighway, Gary Ablett and Piet Hamburg were a necessity to try and transform a failing system which had fundamentally failed in recent years to bring through the youngsters required to support the first team squad. The arrival of two coaches from one of the best youth academies in the world, Barcelona’s La Masia, in Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell, will take time to bear fruit and begin the transformation that is required. The review by Frank McParland last season, instigated by Rafa Benitez, envisaged a big change in how the academy at Kirkby was run, transforming how team’s train in regards to technical skills and tactical knowledge, fitness, diet, education and medical facilities. It’s a fundamental culture change which needed to be enacted for the club’s youth system to progress. Inevitably then, things take time to really transform, and going by Borrell’s comments on the state of the place when he arrived, it may take longer than the few years that were expected. “The reality of what we found here was unacceptable,” is what he said to BBC Sport only a couple of weeks ago.
In this context then, to look at the progress of the changes being made is to be very pre-mature. Things are only just starting to be transformed and we are at the beginning of a very slow painful process. In regards to what has happened on the pitch though, things could be said to be looking up. In regards to John McMahon’s reserve setup at Melwood, things have gone pretty well despite the late season slump in form. McMahon’s side went on a long unbeaten run after losing their opening day fixture to Blackburn Rovers but the loss of five straight games in a row at the critical stage of the season all but ruled out any chance of a Reserve league title. None the less they finished with 32 points from 18 games, 9 points behind eventual champions Man United. I think it is a campaign that McMahon should be very proud of, he saw two of his players in Daniel Pacheco and Daniel Ayala playing for the first team, as well seeing two impressive graduates from the U-18s David Amoo and Lauri Dalla Valle really making their mark at this level. It was also good to see that some more youngsters such as Alex Cooper, John Flanagan and Conor Coady were given their chance to shine as the season drew to a close.
For the Academy Under 18s team, form has been in complete inverse correlation to the reserves side as they started off poorly but rallied to be unbeaten since February when they lost to Watford in the FA Youth Cup. One of the major problems that may have been at fault for the poor start, and which shocked Borrell, was the lack of a striker in the Under 18s.
“The under-18s had no centre forward, no balance. They had no tactical level, no understanding of the game. We are working hard, but you can’t change things overnight. I think we have made a lot of progress over eight months, but we need to improve a lot more to get more players into the first team.”
It is sort of thing which is at the crux of the problems at academy level and to address the problem Michael Ngoo was brought in from Southend, and Krizstian Adorjan, James Ellison as well as Toni Silva were utilised to correct the imbalance in the team. Still it took time for the U-18s to adapt, and despite being useful on the ball at times, they lacked penetration up front and were weak defensively, something that has improved as the season has gone on with Ngoo, Tom Ince, Toni Silva and Andre Wisdom all impressing at different times.
In the end though, results on the pitch are secondary to the players coming out of the teams and the system. You could point to Dani Pacheco and Daniel Ayala as being examples of success but both players were brought in relatively late in their development as players and were easily moulded from then on. The Academy re-organisation is much more than just bringing in good players from abroad, it is about getting a good ethos at the club, something I have discussed about at length in another article about the difficulties that Borrell and Segura face in England. What is fundamental to this is to breed English players who have the passion for Liverpool Football Club. Borrell explains:
“When I arrived the first thing Rafa told me was that the biggest interest is to try to develop English players. I agree – the best players to defend the Barca shirt are Catalan players, the best players to defend the Liverpool shirt are English players. The rest of the players who are not English, they must be massive, massive quality. We have to fight to make English players arrive. If in two or three years one of our players does make the first team, I think he will be English.”
So we can expect a move away from nabbing players abroad before they sign a professional contract at 18, which has been the policy of recent years, and move towards true development of home grown talent. The arrival of Jonjo Shelvey and Raheem Sterling is just the start of this, and something which will take years of construction. It has only just begun but all seems pretty promising after the first year of new rule.
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Another quality article. The development of the youth set-up is definately the highlight of the season. The key is to bring through large numbers of prospects, not a handful.
Think you will find that the biggest problem at the academy was the negative attitude of both Houllier and Benitez, both control freaks. It is no secret that no love was lost between both managers and Heighway resulting in a virtual
block on any movement of players to Melwood. In fact most of the young talent under Benitez were not even allowed at the Academy. McParlands “review”
was lip service.
As soon as Parry took his loot and was denied his weekly goalkeeping coaching lessons at the Academy (not a bad job was it ?)Benitez took control and wreaked his revenge. The biggest clear out of staff ever at Liverpool. The end of the “Liverpool Way” Kenny was a good diversion as handshaker in chief but to fill the club top to bottom with his compatriots ensures turmoil if and when Benitez goes.Borrells 18 months at Barcelona, irrespective of how many names he drops is not long enough to have any influence on player development nor is a job record to boast about. He has berated the previous incumbents to give himself some breathing space but like everybody before him he will stand or fall on his results. The good news for him is he wont be doing it with one arm tied behind his back.