Quantcast
View from the Kop

A Star in the Making? Liverpool’s Conor Coady

|

With there being a lot of focus on Liverpool’s young players recently, I thought it would be good to have a look at one of our most promising youngsters, Conor Coady. Coady’s profile has risen in recent months as captain of England’s victorious U17 side that won the European Championships a couple of months back. Along with another Red Andre Wisdom, both played key roles in the England’s first ever triumph at the Championships, and it is believed that the young lad has a good future ahead of him.

Capable of playing either as a centre back or as a holding midfield player, Coady captained Liverpool’s U18s throughout the whole of last season and is seen as a natural leader. Coady played the majority of the season under Rodolfo Borrell in the Academy side but with John McMahon’s reserve team short on numbers, Coady was included in some reserve fixtures as the season drew to a close. He has been both trusted at club level by the Liverpool coaches, shown by his promotion to reserve team action, and at international level where England U17 manager John Peacock has entrusted him with the armband.

While he played the majority of U18 games at centre-half, it is his performances in central midfield for England that have really stood out. Good in the tackle and very vocal on the pitch, Coady could be seen as somewhat of a midfield enforcer who breaks up opposition attacks and starts new ones for his own side. As formerly solely a centre half, it took him sometime to get used to his holding role both for Liverpool and England and he initially looked less than comfortable in the role.

As time has gone on though he has made the position his own, especially for England, and he looks more assured and commanding in midfield than he does in defence. His passing has improved markedly over the last year, something that will be a necessity if he is to play the role, although it is believed that he won’t ever turn into a box-to-box midfielder. His ambitions have been set more modestly as although he might never be able to hit long raking diagonal balls like a Xabi Alonso or Steven Gerrard, he could very easily be bred in the mould of a Javier Mascherano- a destroyer in other words.

Still having many of the attributes of a centre back, Coady has the physical presence in the position to muscle lightweight attacking midfielders off the ball and has a good enough heading ability to win his good share of aerial battles in the centre of the park. He is also relatively quick meaning he can cut out counter attacks when they become dangerous, although his positional play may need to improve if he is going to be a Premier League player.

Conor Coady then is a player you should look out for. He will start next season in the reserves and will no doubt hope to catch the eye of Roy Hodgson. The move from U17/18 level to the senior setup at Melwood is always a difficult one and it will be interesting to see if he can both handle the physical side of the game and if he has footballing brain and toughness to become a ball winning midfield player. Time will tell.

Follow us on twitter @live4Liverpool

Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at editor@live4liverpool.com

Share this article

8 comments

  • Paul says:

    Future Liverpool stars

  • Noblelox says:

    In this day and age of pointless and useless articles written on LFC, it is a joy top see such a good bit of journalism, I applaud you Mr. Tully

  • Brendan says:

    It’s unbelievable how much young talent we have in defence at the moment! If Kelly, Wilson, Ayala, Wisdom, Coady and Robinson all progress as they’re expected to, we could save a lot of money. On top of this, our players could be pivotal for England.

    And, this is even before we consider the likes of Pacheco, Suso, Sterling and Shelvey.

  • DEN says:

    I find it a bit depressing that one of the future “stars in the making” for Liverpool is a young central midfielder who can’t pass long, who’s still working on improving his short passing, who’s not a box to box midfielder and who lacks creativity (no mention of it in the article) and whose main qualities are strong in the tackle, vocal and good at heading. Mobile “destroyer” type players can be found all over the English league. Much rarer are centre mids who can control a game’s tempo with short and long passing and/or can drive into the box at the right time and the right place and finish an attack.

    It reminds me of the story of one of the senior overseas players (can’t remember which) who met some of the youngsters at Liverpool and asked them what their best skill was and was aghast when a number of them said it was their tackling. If Spain’s recent dominance has shown anything then surely it’s that football should be based on passing, control and movement first not tackling and being vocal. Their centre mids, Xavi and Iniesta aren’t strong tackling, good at heading types. Their defensive mid, Alonso, is decent in the tackle but more importantly excellent at passing and dictating tempo.

    I’m not putting down Conor. I’ve not seen him play and I’m sure he’s a very good player. I will support anyone who plays for the Reds and I suspect this article is doing him a dis-service. I’m disappointed at the tone of this article and the implication that to be a future star for Liverpool all you need is the ability to break up play and shout a lot.

  • Noblelox says:

    @DEN, bit of a silly comment eh? Never thought that through before having a pop? Is jamie Carragher not a Liverpool legend? How about Sami Hyypia? Are you so short sighted to think that only regular goal scorers can be stars? Didn’t Steven Gerrard not start as a holding mid-fielder?

    You should really think things through before having a pop from your comfy armchair.

  • Greg says:

    Looking forward to a Coady -Suso midfield partnership one day!
    Just one point – I don’t think the reserves are at Melwood this year. I think they’ve been moved to the Academy, but they will play regular games against the firsts (during intl. breaks, I guess)

  • DEN says:

    @Noblelox

    Carra and Hyppia are legends but they’re Central Defenders whose primary purpose is to break up play. Central Mid is a different proposition. In a a top 4 team, your centre mid can’t just be a destroyer. The top teams have CMs that can break up play but also have more to their game, players like Makelele, Essien, Keane and Gerrard.

    >> Didn’t Steven Gerrard not start as a holding mid-fielder?
    Yes but he is the star player that he is not because of his tackling and heading but because he can drive play forward, spread the ball around and also score.

    >> Are you so short sighted to think that only regular goal scorers can be stars?
    I don’t think that’s what I said. I said that a future star CM needs to do more than break up play. I honestly believe that if we want Liverpool to be top 4 again in the PL, we need CMs that can do more than just break up play.

    >> bit of a silly comment eh? Never thought that through before having a pop

    Not having a pop, just expressing an opinion. and trying not stoop to resort to personal comments.

  • Pingback: Post Free Ads

Comments are closed.