Liverpool's first team may be in action on Sunday in the Barclays Premier League - but it will also be an important couple of days for the club's youngsters and LFC TV and LFC TV Online will bring you all the Academy action live.

On Saturday, Steve Cooper's U18s host Middlesbrough hoping to build on a confident 3-1 victory away to Fulham in their last match while on Monday night Rodolfo Borrell's U21s make the journey east to the Riverside.

Neil Mellor and David Fairclough will be there with them on Saturday with coverage starting at 12.45pm BST and the pair will travel to Teeside on Monday for a half-hour build-up show from 6.30pm as Rodolfo's boys take centre stage against 'Boro.

To assess the mood ahead of the two forthcoming fixtures, LFC TV dropped by the Kirkby Academy to chat to the two managers. First up was U18s boss Cooper.

"You'll always get a good football game against Middlesbrough because they have been a successful Academy team for a number of years now and you can see that with the players that have come through," he said. "You know what you are going to get with them. It will be a technical and tactical war in some ways and that's what you want at this level.

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"I just hope that we can go about our business the right way and play with the right intentions of dominating the game through possession and playing with good order. Then hopefully being tight at the back and creating good opportunities at the other end.

"The most important thing is exposing our boys to something different and something elitist every single week and making sure that we can handle what is thrown at us.

"I think it will be a difficult test this weekend and I think that we will have to be switched on. We'll have to work very hard in the first half-hour to resist what Middlesbrough will throw at us and hopefully end up dominating the game."

Currently sitting top of the Barclays U21s National Group three, the Reds' U21s are unbeaten so far this season and their fine vein of form has been reflected in the influx of young talent into the first-team set-up.

Here's what their boss Borrell had to say about Monday's fixture: "Middlesbrough are a very organised team.

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"They have started well by winning 4-0 at Crystal Palace and then they beat Chelsea 3-1 away in their last game. Chelsea are one of the teams with more quality players - if not the most - in the league and it's not easy to beat them.

"Middlesbrough have a very good team. They look to hit you on the counter-attack and have quick players up front including a fantastic No.9. They also defend set-pieces very well and they are a very difficult team to break down."

The nature of Middlesbrough's counter-attacking, defensive style will not, however, prompt a wholesale change in tactics from Borrell, who insists that while he will make his players aware of potential dangers, he will encourage them to continue to play in their own, familiar style.

"You try not to change your approach because you are stronger the more you stick to the same shape," he explained. "But you need to make the players aware of the situation and try to give them solutions.

"If not, they will get a surprise and sometimes there is no time for a response. We will try to get in the game and work hard as we usually do."

Both the Academy games will be broadcast on LFC TV and LFC TV Online.

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