A lot of the pre match talk prior to Liverpool’s last 32 Europa League encounter against Sparta Prague has been about Raheem Sterling. The young winger will be the youngest player ever to play for the Reds at 16 years and 71 days if he makes an appearance in Prague tomorrow night. His five goals against Southend in the FA Youth Cup have increased the hype around the player, and Kenny has shown he is not afraid to put faith in young players. He has also selected Conor Coady, John Flanagan, Tom Ince and Jack Robinson in the squad and it will be interesting to see whether the King gives any of them a chance in the tie against Sparta.
There is certainly a lot of excitement surrounding the youth players at Liverpool at the moment, especially after the U-18s 9-0 win on Monday night. Credit must be given to Rafa Benitez for restructuring the Academy two summer’s ago and the work and investment that has been put in by the club over the last two years with the addition of Frank McParland, Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell to the coaching staff, and the signings of youngsters such as Sterling, Suso, Jonjo Shelvey and others has led to increasing optimism that Kirkby will finally produce the players which can help the first team progress.
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Of course, it is not always wise to look too far ahead and Kenny will no doubt just be focusing on his first ever European game as manager of Liverpool. With English clubs being banned from European competitions for five years after Heysel, Dalglish has never led the Reds into Europe, despite winning 3 league titles and two FA Cups during his first spell in charge. Dalglish is looking forward to his first taste of European football as Reds boss:
“Im looking forward to it. Back then we played against European teams in friendlies but after Heysel we were banned from Europe for five years. We won League Championships and FA Cups, but someone in their wisdom decided we should be banned so this is my first ever opportunity to manage Liverpool in Europe. Like I say, I’m looking forward to it. There was some good work done before I came here to get us to this stage and I just hope we can build upon it.”
Dalglish hasn’t ruled out playing some of the youngsters in the tie saying that “all were going” to be on the flight to Prague anyway, no matter their performance against Southend on Monday. He stated he wasn’t surprised by the display he saw in the FA Youth Cup and that the starlets could play a part in proceedings, although he did say there is a need to be “sensible and realistic” with the young players.
Turning our attentions to the senior players playing tomorrow night: Steven Gerrard and Daniel Agger were not fit to travel and are not risked for the Europa League encounter, while Christian Poulsen stays at home as his wife is in labour. Joe Cole has recovered from his knee injury and Raul Meireles is fit again after being taken off ill against Wigan at the weekend.
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Our opponents Sparta Prague have not played since their winter break so they may be a bit fresher but rusty, and the Reds should look to capitalise on their lack of game time in the first 15-20 minutes. Sparta are currently 2nd in the league on 37 points, four points behind top spot. Striker Vaclav Kadlec could be the Czech side’s biggest threat, the 18 year old scored on his international debut against Liechtenstein back in October.
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Prediction: 1-0 victory for Liverpool
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This week it is even more of former Liverpool WAG Amii Grove! ————– CLICK ON THE IMAGE OR HERE TO GET TO THE GALLERY –
Dont think any of the youngsters will play. They are with the team just for the experience. Which is a good thing i reckon.