'It's the stuff you dream of as an Academy coach and player'

After the young Reds had beaten Burnley 4-1 in Kirkby, they sat down to watch the remainder of the first-team clash with AFC Ajax at Anfield.

Bridge-Wilkinson and his squad witnessed the impact of a host of Academy graduates, who helped Jürgen Klopp’s side reach the Champions League last 16.

Curtis Jones netted the only goal of the game following a pinpoint cross from Neco Williams, and Caoimhin Kelleher produced a series of saves to preserve a clean sheet.

Plus, Academy midfielders Leighton Clarkson and Jake Cain looked on from the bench as substitutes.

“It was a really good night for the Academy,” Bridge-Wilkinson told Liverpoolfc.com.

“With the way we had performed against Burnley we were quite pleased, but the most important thing was when we came off the pitch, we sat and watched the last 20 minutes of the first team.

“We saw Curtis score the goal, Neco with the assist and Caoimhin making the save at the end. It’s stuff that you really dream of as an Academy coach, and I’m sure all of the boys at the Academy now all dream of doing that one day.

“It was a really special evening.”

Bridge-Wilkinson’s side are back in action on Saturday morning when they face Manchester United in a top-of-the-table clash in the U18s Premier League North – a game you can watch live on LFCTV and LFCTV GO, with kick-off scheduled for 11.30am GMT.

The young Reds are top scorers across both sections of the U18s Premier League having racked up 30 goals in nine matches, and are ahead of United on goal difference.

Ahead of the trip to the AON Training Complex, we spoke to Bridge-Wilkinson about his side’s progress so far, the influence of midfielder Dominic Corness, and the promise of new goalkeeper Marcelo Pitaluga…

On a decent start to the season by his team…

It’s been really positive. Since August 1 when we returned we’ve continually tried to improve and hopefully we’ve shown that week in, week out. We are still trying.

On the impressive 4-1 home victory over Burnley in midweek, without the likes of Layton Stewart and Tyler Morton…

The lads did really well. It was a little bit different in terms of the team and the make-up of the team but, like we’ve said all along, we’ve got good players. We’ve got good players who unfortunately are not on the pitch all of the time because I can only play 11, and we’ve also got a few players injured. Fortunately, whatever team we put out we’ve got a lot of belief in them.

LFCTV GO: Watch the best of the win over Burnley

On the experience of playing under the Kirkby lights in midweek...

We did that on purpose actually because the fixture was supposed to played last Saturday morning. But with all the COVID restrictions around the Academy and the amount of games that were being played that day as well as training, we thought it would be a great opportunity to put the boys on the main pitch under the floodlights in midweek. We wanted to give them that different set-up and everything that goes with preparing for a midweek game. We were really pleased with them and the boys did really well.

On being the U18 Premier League’s top scorers in both the North and South divisions…

It’s the way I like to play and the way I like football to be played. We’ve got players in the team who can score goals, which is really important, and whilst we’ve got players who can attack and score goals then we’ll keep trying to do that.

On the influence of Corness in midfield, who provided two assists against Burnley…

He’s doing really well. Dom had a really difficult season last year with injury and being a first-year not getting the game time he had been used to previously. This season he has adapted well and he has come back stronger and fitter since the break. He’s getting to a point now where his fitness and his performances are really starting to show.

On the quality of his deliveries from wide areas and set-pieces with his left foot…

Dom has a wonderful left foot. He has got the ability to put the ball wherever he wants to put it and our job as coaches is to try to get him on the ball as much as we can. For players like Layton [Stewart], Oakley [Cannonier], Max [Woltman], Matty [Mateusz Musialowski] and Mel [Melkamu Frauendorf], we want those boys to get further forward into positions when Dom can find them because he has the ability do that.

On all eyes being on the players now from the first-team staff…

Where we train now is a little bit further down nearer to the first-team building and who knows who is watching at any time? That’s what we tell the boys, so we tell them to try to do their best every day, improve every day and one time the manager might poke his head over and you might do something that catches his eye – that’s the dream, isn’t it?

On Saturday’s visit to Manchester United…

We can’t say we are not looking forward to this one because we are. It’s a brilliant game and a big game in terms of the history of the two clubs. They have got a really good team as well and obviously we quite like ourselves as a team. We think we’ve got good players, they have as well, so it’s going to be tough, but it will be a really good test for us. We’ve been playing quite well, they have too so what a great time to go there. First and foremost, it’s an opportunity to test yourself against the best teams around. With us just being in a league in the north west we don’t get to play against some of the teams from down south very often, so Manchester United is definitely one of the games we look forward to.

On the importance of keeping a cool head in this game…

It’s huge. We want the boys to play with emotion to a point and we want them to be engulfed in the game and to understand and recognise the certain moments in a game where they can play off adrenaline, they can use the impulse and they can go a little bit harder at the right time. But, of course, you don’t want them to overstep the mark and you end up playing with a man less. So, it’s all about that fine line between recognising the emotion that’s needed at the time but never crossing the line. Again, it’s a part of development, so we’re going to try our best to do it properly and obviously try to win the game and perform in the right way, and we hope the boys can do that.

On being top of the U18 Premier League North ahead of second-placed United on goal difference…

It’s brilliant but my job is not to win leagues. My job is to help boys develop and hopefully get to the point where we were talking about before, like Neco and Curtis making their first-team debuts. Winning is important in terms of that’s what their end goal is. It’s all about winning when they play for the first team so we’ve got to teach them to win, teach them how to win, but that can’t be everything, not at this age. Yes, we’ll try to win and yes, we’ll try to give them enough information and the desire which they have themselves to go and win the game. But the main thing is we are going to play against a top team, a team that has got good players and we want to really go and match what we’ve got and see where we end up.

On Billy Koumetio featuring in recent games for the U23s and U18s…

Firstly, Billy is training with the first team, which is brilliant and a great experience for him. If he needs games with either ourselves or the U23s then obviously we are all willing to do that. If we are fortunate to get Billy again we will be really pleased and really grateful, but if we are not then we will use the boys we have got in our mix right now.

On Brazilian goalkeeper Pitaluga getting his opportunity in recent games…

Marcelo has done really well. We haven’t had the opportunity to train with him very often but he’s done really well. It’s a difficult situation when he’s coming into a group he doesn’t really know and doesn’t particularly know us as staff because he’s working with the first team. He’s a wonderful young man, he comes across really well and his performances have been fantastic. We are really pleased and when we get the opportunity to work with him we’ll lap that up.

On getting the recent opportunity to play at Melwood during the 5-0 win over Leeds United…

It was a really special day. We were very fortunate that we were allowed to go and do that. Whether we are the last Liverpool team to play there or one of the last Liverpool teams, to go and perform and play well was the most important thing. It was important that we won that game because for every player that’s been there before and every coach who has been there before, or every fan that has peered over the wall to watch training, that we tried to do that place justice. We did perform, we got the result we wanted and the most important thing was the boys got the opportunity to experience Melwood before it’s different. They got to experience it less than a week after the first team had left and that was quite a special moment for them and us as staff as well.