Now have a look at the two youngsters who started in the full back roles against Arsenal. John Flanagan and Jack Robinson are very young (18 and 17 respectively) but you couldn’t tell that from the way they played against Arsenal and especially against Birmingham. Watching Flanagan dribble inside out around Lee Bowyer in the 43rd minute, took you back to the kind of confidence another set of youngsters surprised the rest of the league with, way back in the early nineties.
Ring any bells? A bunch of youngsters, having just won the FA Youth Cup, thrust on to the big stage by their Scottish manager. Against all odds and expectations (including Alan Hansen’s infamous ‘You’ll never win anything with kids’ prediction), ushering in a new era at the club which promoted them to legendary status? The example of Manchester United succeeding with the likes of Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Gary and Phil Neville, doesn’t mean Liverpool can expect to grace the top stages overnight but it goes to show how much youngsters nurtured and developed at a club can do when given the chances at the first team level.
Gerrard himself, Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, were all products of the academy but had they filtered through at the same time, things would’ve been different. Now the club has talented youngsters like Flanagan, Robinson, Spearing, Kelly, all coming through with exquisite talent and will, to give the big boys a run for their money. If Kenny Dalglish continues to give them the opportunities he has been partly forced to do so far due to the injuries, fans can regularly expect solid performances again like the ones we saw against Manchester City, gritty battles won like against Arsenal, and possibly the odd extravagant showing like against Birmingham.
Next up – Newcastle at home. Obvious really, to bill it as Andy Carroll’s date with destiny if he’s fit. It’s unavoidable despite Kenny Dalglish’s insistence at the post match interview on Saturday, of it being about Liverpool playing Newcastle, not just Carroll. There will be heightened expectation as he prepares to face his hometown club which made him the £35 million striker we scooped in January. In all honesty, he made himself that from the chances he was provided with. A similar thing that these youngsters look like doing at Melwood and then in the first team red of Liverpool. If they keep at it, the future looks a bright red with no devils in sight.
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Written by someone who knows very little about Liverpool football club. Glen Johnson was not in the team that came second in the league.
Also Fernando Torres was not at liverpool 5 years ago
Glen Johnson , dude? Are you sure? If i were Ryan Babel i would tweet ” #smh”.
Apologies for that error. I mixed up Arbeloa (who was the right back then) with Johnson for some reason…
Sorry to be pedantic, but Robinson didnt start against Arsenal, he came on for Aurelio after about 20 minutes.
Again, more utterly dreadful ‘journalism’ on this website. Embarrassing, really.
Hi Keith,
You may be unaware, this is a fans website, written by fans, it has no pretensions to be a serious “journalist” website. They write articles because they enjoy writing them, not because they are paid to. If you want something else, please go another website where your unhelpful comments can be unappreciated by someone else. The writer made an honest oversight in couple of things he said in his article. As editor, I should have looked more carefully at the article and I shall endeavour to correct any in future.
Thanks.
Agreed Dave, well said!
Well said said Dave, an interesting read all the same
Carrol would,nt get in my team – not at the expense of Maxi, Yes I know!!! but if a player gets a hat trick he should at least expect to start the next game even if not getting 90 mins.
Or even proof-read it once?
Anyway, i shall take your advice.
Good article and i cant get the criticism you get!!it’s written very well and those are also my ideas right now.i mean well done to King Kenny and Steve Clarke for not only rescuing the club and getting the results better but for using youngsters too.Jack Robinson will get a clap from me everytime i watch him trying harder and harder.i cant choose which is the most surprising of these two,Martin Kelly or John Flanagan!!Congratulations to both of them for fighting even though they are both too young.Spearing sh*t my mouth as i said in the start of the season that he is 22 years old and doesnt develop well..Well he’s s**t my mouth the last weeks and the guy’s fighting at every chance.next to Lucas those two make the difficult part of the game,marking and passing all the time.Meireles is TOP class and not only that but he is 100% commited from the 1st time he came to Anfield to watch the Liverpool-Arsenal game.Kuyt is really the “DURACEL” Dirk and i just want to hail everyone from King Kenny to FSG for the captures of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez.both of these guys have been awesome and they are 22 and 24 years old,meaning they are both young.if we create a top squad with good wingers providing crosses to Carroll or Suarez it’ll take us to the next level.just look at Tottenham where Crouch doesnt have the skill Messi has but still with Bale and Lennon on the wings,with good crosses he gets to score easily.what i want is a fresh and young squad like the German national team at World cup for example.Khedira,Ozil,Muller,Neuer,Mertesacker,Marin,..etc while other teams with more so called “experienced” players,scr**ed it up like Argentina,Italy or England for example.can you really say that Khedira-Schweinsteiger-Ozil are better than Gerrard-Barry-Lampard??no way but they were more hungry for fresh for winning.that’s what i want to see at Liverpool.Torres is considered one of the best strikers in the world in his good game but his good game never existed in his last season for us!!he scored 9 goals before he left but most of these 9 goals were sitters.and while Suarez and Carroll might not have the quality Torres posses,they are hungrier for goals and assists and i LOVE that.
Future is Bright
YNWA