'Our young players deserve a lot of credit'
Neil Critchley declared himself a proud manager after his inexperienced U21 side narrowly lost to Fleetwood Town on penalties in the group stage of the Leasing.com Trophy.
Caoimhin Kelleher, Rhian Brewster, Curtis Jones, Ki-Jana Hoever and Harvey Elliott all started for the first team at MK Dons at the same time.
Herbie Kane, Pedro Chirivella, Sepp van den Berg, Adam Lewis, Leighton Clarkson and Luis Longstaff were also on the bench for Jürgen Klopp’s team.
That meant the majority of Critchley’s XI that took to the field at Highbury Stadium against Fleetwood were U18 level.
Joey Barton’s side took the lead on the night but the young Reds soon levelled through Neco Williams.
Liverpool claimed a point from the 1-1 draw but missed out on an extra bonus point as they were beaten 4-3 in the penalty shootout.
But Critchley revealed his pride with the whole night’s work for the Academy…
On the display at Fleetwood Town from one of the youngest teams he has selected at U21 level…
I would have thought that is the youngest team and I don’t remember picking a younger team at this level before. That is something Alex [Inglethorpe] and I were talking about prior to the game. It was a great opportunity for some of those young boys to prove themselves and I thought on the night they acquitted themselves really well and came out of the game with a lot of credit. The senior players in the team, even though you can’t really class them as senior players, stood up well and really gave a good example to the younger players in the group. So, together collectively on the night I thought we played a really good game.
On handing boyhood Liverpool fan, 18-year-old Elijah Dixon-Bonner, the captain’s armband for the first time…
I’ve been super impressed with Elijah since he has come back from pre-season. He worked very hard in the summer on his physical attributes and I think he has had a really good start to the season for us. I thought it was the right moment for him to step up and take the captaincy. His social side as well, with the way he is interacting with the players and staff this season, he has matured as a person. I thought he would be the right person to lead the team on the night.
On the players showing great character to bounce back to 1-1 after going a goal down…
We bounced straight back almost immediately after conceding. It was a fantastic goal from Neco. It didn’t affect us at all and we went straight back at them. We showed no fear and before they scored we arguably had the best chances on the night and could have been leading. I’ve got nothing but positive things to say about the group on the night. It’s a shame we lost the penalty shootout but even that was a fantastic learning experience for the younger players, taking a pressure spot-kick in front of a crowd. That was a great experience for us last night and that’s what we wanted when we entered this competition. You look at our striker Layton Stewart, who is only 17, and he is up against Peter Clarke and Ashley Eastham, who have got experience in the bucketload. They have played hundreds of league games and they are men, but the way Layton competed against those two all evening was brilliant. Tom Hill as well, all of them, that’s why we entered this competition and last night we got the perfect opportunity to showcase our young players against senior players, which is fantastic.
LFCTV GO: Watch the Fleetwood highlights
On coming off the pitch at the end of the game to the brilliant news of the first team winning at MK Dons with several of his U23s squad shining on the night…
It certainly was a great feeling. We obviously had one eye on the team at MK Dons and what the selection would be. We found out at the end of our game they had won the game and all of the staff were absolutely delighted to see those boys had their opportunity. Again, I think it speaks volumes for our manager and his bravery to give young players an opportunity and hopefully they have done themselves no harm with their performances. It was nice to see Ki-Jana score and I’ve never seen him head the ball like that before! It was a great cross and a bullet header so I was delighted for him as well as all of the boys. There were nearly 29,000 people there and it was a good evening. Caoimhin kept a clean sheet and now they have got Arsenal at Anfield, and hopefully one or two of them might get the opportunity to play in the next round.
On entering another busy week of league and cup action and a hectic season ahead at U23 level…
That is what we want and the more games we play the better for us. We want to try to give players an experience of playing in games that really test them. We test their character and personality, they have got to recover right in between games because that’s the world they are going into. You look at the amount of games our first team play and these boys have to be prepared for that. Our players have to become robust both physically and mentally so that’s why we have got such a busy schedule this season.
On Saturday’s return to Premier League 2 action away at Arsenal…
It’s another tough game to look forward to. We will recover and prepare as best as we can and then we will go again against Arsenal. Overall so far, in our last few games I would say we have played very well, maybe the points haven’t backed up the performances we have produced so we will be looking to go down there, impose ourselves on Arsenal and try to win the game. We know it will be an extremely tough game and they have got some excellent young players themselves so it should hopefully make for a really good game of football.