The 19-year-old returned from injury to play a key role for the U19s as they clinched a stoppage time 2-1 win over Red Star Belgrade in the UEFA Youth League on Wednesday.
Adekanye missed last Sunday’s 3-2 defeat to Derby County in Premier League 2, and Critchley is delighted to have the winger available for selection once again.
The young Reds are back in action when they face Blackburn Rovers on Monday at 7pm GMT - a match you can watch live on LFCTV GO.
Read on for Critchley’s thoughts on the influence of Adekanye, why he handed Matty Virtue the captain’s armband and more...
On the return of Adekanye...
We missed him against Derby and what we miss is his ability to take players on and get at people. He eliminates defenders and takes people out of the game which opens up the game for other people. His performance after two-and-a-half weeks out against Red Star Belgrade was really encouraging. I thought it was a terrific game from him but unfortunately it was probably another game you could probably say Bobby could have walked off with the match ball. It’s something we have got to work on with Bobby, to improve his consistency of finishing and we are working with him. One thing about Bobby is he has got a great attitude and great belief in himself so we will continue to try and improve that side of his game and we are confident he will get there. He has a lot of qualities.
On making Virtue the U23s' skipper...
Responsibility is an area of Matty’s game that we have been speaking to him about, being a senior player for the U23s. He needs to develop his communication and leadership skills because I think that will help to develop him as a person and it will develop his game. One of his best attributes without a doubt is getting into the penalty area and scoring goals. If you are a goalscoring midfield player then people take notice of you. He has got four for us this season and with the chances he has missed as well he could have had 14 by now!
On Isaac Christie-Davies netting his first Liverpool goal v Derby and pushing on from here…
It was a really good finish and it’s something we have been talking to Isaac about, stressing to him about the fact he has got good endurance and he needs to use that to get into the box at the right time. He was unlucky not to score with that chance we had just after half-time when they cleared it off the line but he was right in there in the right place. So, good signs from him and some good signs from a lot of the players. The result just didn’t back up some of the good parts of our game on the day.
On the defeat to Derby…
It was a really good game of football between two evenly-matched teams. I thought we had the better of the first half and they had the better of the second. There were very few chances at either end and the decisive moment of the game was when we had one cleared off the line early in the second half which would have made it 2-0 to us. That might have enabled us to go on and win the game but we didn’t defend our goal well enough in the decisive moments, particularly the set-piece. We then had a little bit of misfortune for the other two goals but we have still got to defend those situations better. I can’t fault the lads in terms of their attitude and approach to the game and they were giving it their all right until the end. It was just on the day we didn’t do quite well enough in both boxes. It’s just the way things are going for us at the moment and on another day we would get at least a point from that game.
On Monday’s match v Blackburn at the Lancashire FA County Ground in Leyland...
It’s a really good venue, a good pitch with good facilities. I am expecting another tough game. We’ll have to be at our best and we will have to defend our goal a lot better than what we did last Sunday. We need to be more clinical as well than we have been in our previous games so far this season.
On the U23s' season so far...
The line has been very fine in a lot of our games this season and Derby was probably the most even game we have had this season, other than Chelsea in the second half. Apart from that I think we have been the dominant team in every game we have played. Sometimes you are left scratching your head thinking how have we not at least got a point or won that game! But these boys are in a results driven basis and they have to know and learn how to win games. That is vitally important for them and at this moment we haven’t produced the results that our performances in my view have merited, but we can’t be happy with that and we certainly aren’t patting each other on the back. We have to do better and we are expected to win games.