Liverpool finished third in this year’s inaugural NextGen series. How did their young stars perform and what did we learn from it?
Reviewing Liverpool’s NextGen campaign
For those who are not so familiar with it, the NextGen series was launched back at the beginning of this season, as a version of the Champions League aimed at young academy under-19 teams. It was won by Inter Milan over the weekend, but how did Liverpool – one the 16 entrants- get on?
Where did they finish?
Liverpool defeated Marseille 2-0 on Saturday to win the third-placed play-off match, and that was without Raheem Sterling, who was called up to the first team squad, with Adam Morgan and Michael Ngoo scoring the goals.They progressed to the semi-finals, where they were handed a tough lesson by Ajax who thrashed them 6-0. Nonetheless, to finish third was a superb achievement considering the high standard of opponents who did not make it to the semi-finals, Barcelona included. However there is more to it than meets the eye, they were actually knocked out by Tottenham the round before, who were forced to withdraw after a row over two ineligible players.
Who else did they beat?
Liverpool’s progression to the semi-finals, and an eventual third place belied their slow progress in the group stages. Their group was dominated by Sporting Lisbon, who beat them 5-1 and 3-0, and won 16 points out of a possible 18. However the Portuguese club were eliminated by Inter Milan. Liverpool sneaked through in second place, courtesy of two wins over Norwegian club Molde: 4-0 and 3-0, and a draw with Wolfsburg.
Who were the standout players?
Striker Adam Morgan bagged three goals, as did impressive 18-year-old winger Toni Silva.Silva is a young Portuguese player who has recently joined Northampton Town on a short-term loan. Captain Conor Coady was impressive in the play-off win over Marseille, and will hope his performance was not unnoticed by Kenny Dalglish. Fernandez Suso had his impressive moments, despite missing a penalty in the semi-final loss to Ajax.
Where do they go from here?
Liverpool will now need to take a step back and look at how to improve ahead of next year’s tournament. They did not look like the third best team in the NextGen cup, winning just three games out of nine. Nonetheless, third is the position the club achieved, which is all credit to them. Many will decry their achievement, having reached the semi-finals on a technicality and losing 6-0 to the runners-up, but their third place will go down in the record books. Now manager Rodolfo Burrell will have to build on this, and look at putting together a squad which can stake a genuine challenge for the tournament.
If they play like they did this year, it is unlikely they will win it, they will need to improve. As far as players go, Adam Morgan, Fernandez Suso and Conor Coady will push for some sort of involvement in the first team next year, or even a loan, although the decision will rest with Kenny Dalglish. It has, provided valuable experience for the players, who will have learned from testing themselves up against Europe’s best talents of a similar age.
Watch highlights of Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Molde, featuring a brace from Adam Morgan.
image: © kong niffe
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