A virtual Liverpool reserve team last night consisting mainly of young players and even a few debutants managed what the senior side haven’t done for a while and won a match. Our Europa League fixture away at Young Boys was an entertaining 5-3 victory against a side that gave Spurs a real scare recently.
The standout performances came from Andre Wisdom, Suso and substitute Jonjo Shelvey. Right back seems to be the position that is most often covered by our reserve team, the last decade or so has seen Jon Otsemobor, Steven Wright, Martin Kelly and John Flanagan all get regular runs in the side and Wisdom looked as if he has all the qualities needed to be the next off the conveyor belt. Big, strong, quick and determined, and already a Liverpool goalscorer, powering in a header from an accurate Nuri Sahin corner late in the first half, he seems a genuine prospect for the future. Suso showed some neat skill and dribbling ability and if he progresses how the management hope he could be a star in the making. Shelvey came off the bench for the last twenty five minutes and took the game by the scruff of the neck the way we’ve seen Steven Gerrard do, albeit against a Swiss defence with more holes in than their famous cheese…
I was also impressed with Brad Jones, he was assured, good in the air and made a few decent saves. I’m not sure he has the strength of personality to command his area like the top ‘keepers do but he proved more than capable as back up if he is ever. Nuri Sahin and Ossama Assaidi both played their part and if they can reproduce their best moments more consistently over ninety minutes we may have players that can help our league campaign this season. Jordan Henderson looked pretty tidy in a more disciplined role and I think being out of the week to week spotlight may be helping his confidence, though obviously match time will be required if he is to step his game up to the necessary level.
There were downsides as well, Dani Pacheco failing to really make any sort of impression leads me to believe he probably won’t make it at Liverpool the way he threatened to do a couple of seasons back. Jose Enrique’s decline in performance level seems to be continuing from last season, it’s scary how quickly somebody who was so impressive at the beginning of the last campaign is turning into a bit of an accident waiting to happen, fingers crossed this is a blip rather than his natural level. It’s also hard watching Jamie Carragher struggle in situations he dominated for such a long time in the heart of our defence. He’s never had pace but seeing him outmuscled is a real worry, still his attitude is spot on and he is a good leader and somebody who more than played his part in helping guide a young side to a well deserved victory.
Our Europa League group is quite a tricky one on paper, especially with our first team squad looking so sparse, so to win our first game away from home is a real boost. The competition may not have the prestige of the Champions League but it is still a trophy and it would be a good one to win, I’m certainly not of the opinion that getting knocked out early will be a benefit to the team. The performance of the youngsters means we can make eleven changes for Sunday and still pick a team of Reina, Kelly, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson, Gerrard, Allen, Shelvey, Borini, Suarez and Sterling which has the potential to produce results if and when the players gel together.
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