The young Reds reached the quarter-finals of the competition last season and host Villarreal at the Academy in their opening Group E fixture this term - a game you can watch live on LFCTV and LFCTV GO.
The Spanish outfit have already played the other two teams in the pool, Swansea City and Hertha BSC, picking up four points from those matches, and have also started their domestic campaign strongly.
Critchley is therefore anticipating a stern examination of his team's credentials at Kirkby.
Read on for the U23s' boss' thoughts on Wednesday's clash, which precedes a mini-Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on Sunday, a number of Academy players training at Melwood during the international break and more...
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On meeting Villarreal and Everton in the space of four days...
They are two really good games to look forward to. We firstly take on a Villarreal side who are doing very well in their league and they have a good record in this competition. We are looking forward to some really tough fixtures but ones hopefully our young players will relish and are looking forward to.
On potentially having a group of younger players on show against Villarreal…
I think it will be a different group of players and it’s a different competition against different opposition. What we always try to stress to these players is every time we play we want to see certain things from a Liverpool team and they are non-negotiable. It wasn’t lack of effort or spirit against Burnley, it was a lack of game intelligence. We haven’t been clinical enough this season and that has probably been our downfall in quite a few of the games. This game against Villarreal brings a different test. We will have to be organised, competitive and also make sure we play the way we want to play.
On the merits of playing in the Premier League International Cup…
We did reasonably well in the competition last year and qualified out of the group, and we had a really good game against Porto in the quarter-finals. It’s a competition we want to do well in and want to progress in. It’s a really tough first game and it’s a good test for our young players because sometimes you get the chance to play against players who are older than you and a little bit more experienced, streetwise and know how to manage the game. It will be a tough examination for our young players but that’s why we are in this competition. We also have games in the group against Hertha BSC and Swansea City and the reasons for entering this competition is to get those experiences against different types of opposition. It’s something different from our normal games programme and we will learn a lot about our own young players in these types of games, because they might be stretched just outside their comfort zone a little bit which hopefully for us will be a good thing.
On the 1-1 Premier League Cup draw with Burnley last time out, which saw his side miss two penalties...
It was very frustrating and it has been a bit of a recurring theme this season: frustration with a capital F! We didn’t do enough to win the game and we should have done more. We weren’t intelligent enough playing against 10 men even though we were dominant with the ball. It was similar to when we played Tottenham at Anfield earlier on in the season and you know the longer the game goes they gain in confidence because they still feel as though they are in it. If we had scored either of the penalties then that would have deflated the opposition. We then could have gone on to win the game 4-1 and it would have been completely different, but we didn’t and we have to do better than that. I was disappointed, as were the players.
On Glen McAuley getting off the mark at U23 level against Burnley…
The higher level you go the harder it gets. The difference between U18s and U23s and then to the first team - the jumps get bigger and bigger. It can take the boys a period of time to adapt to each level and I think psychologically more than anything there is a realisation that this is tough. They have to respond to that and show what they are about. It was great to see Glen get that goal and that’s what he is capable of. It was a typical goalscorer’s goal, getting across his man at the near post and finishing with a lovely header. He was unfortunate not to get a second goal which would have been the winner right at the end, which was an unbelievable double save. Glen has been looking really sharp in training recently, he has been responding to the messages he has been getting from us and hopefully that can continue.
On a number of the squad getting the chance to train at Melwood during the international break…
It’s invaluable for them to spend some time in front of the manager and his staff and the senior players. To have one, two or three training sessions with them is invaluable and is probably worth six months of coaching that I can give them. They will be better for those experiences but it’s also important that they take something from it and they learn from it. Don’t just go to Melwood to make the numbers up and be a passenger, show what you are about because it’s an opportunity that might not come around too often. They have to grasp it when it comes along.
On Adam Lewis' versatility and ability to play in midfield as well as left-back...
That’s the one thing about having players like Adam who can play in a number of positions. What’s great about Adam is he just gets on with it. He doesn’t sulk or moan and he will play where we ask him to play and do it to the best he can. Adam has a great spirit like that. In our last game it gave an opportunity for Yasser Larouci to make his debut at U23 level at left-back. Yasser has been doing really well for the U18s and we thought it was a good chance for him to step up and see how he adapted to it.