Making judgement calls is part and parcel of being a football manager. Knowing when to change formation or tactics during critical moments in a match is vital, but another aspect which is equally important, is player judgement. The ability to know what to expect from your own players and to get the best out of them is equally vital, and the best exponents of man management such as Bill Shankly and Brian Clough have shown how it can work wonders on a football pitch. Before last night’s match against Manchester City, Kenny Dalglish had this to say about putting in some younger players:
“We have to be very careful. The Academy has progressed fantastically well over the last 18 months or so. We’ve got to be mindful of the fact that those youngsters need to be protected. They’ve played a lot of games at their level and if we are going to put anyone in, it won’t be a problem – but we’ll have to make sure we are sensible. The worst thing for us would be to put someone in and they have a bad game. That would be detrimental.”
Putting young players in at the right time is crucial as it can have detrimental effects on a player’s development if they are risked in the first team too early. Going into the City match I stated that it maybe a risk NOT to risk a youngster in the backline as I felt a backline with four centre backs would not stand up to the rigours of Manchester City’s attack. I genuinely thought that King Kenny would go into the match with Kyrgiakos & Skrtel at centre back with Carragher and Wilson in the full back positions as they had finished the West Brom match the week before, as I felt he would stick to his comments on not risking the youth too early. Still I felt that playing either John Flanagan or Jack Robinson would be the way to go as it would give the Reds the mobility which would be needed against City.
I was pleasantly surprised then when I saw the team news that Flanagan would start against Manchester City. It was certainly a risk to play the 18 year old even though he has shown his capabilities in the Under 18s and reserves over the last couple of years, but his great display versus the Blues last night was testament to his own abilities as well as the judgement of Kenny Dalglish.
Continue Reading on Page 2 . . .
INTRODUCING THE SAMSUNG GALAXY ACE!
his display was as expected, kelly is better of course, it seems to be the local lads making it through to the frirst team – is it because they want it more ?
Kelly’s a better center-back and should be taking Skrtel/Carragher/Kyrgiakos’ place alongside Agger through the middle asap, instead of continuing out of position at full back. I’d much rather see him groomed as our own Smalling/Pique than our own Corluka/Ivanovic…
Tbh tough, it’s pretty tough for the foreign lads to break if they can’t get onto the pitch no matter how badly the first teamers in their position have been performing…
One of the reasons flanagan was good was that carra kept organising the defense and kept giving him advice over his positioning. If we need young blood in the defense we need some1 like carra along side them. Yes agger would do too, but carra does a much better job at that.