Six months in: What's made me proud

The former Tottenham man arrived in November 2012 to assume the role left vacant by Rodolfo Borrell's promotion to Academy technical director.

And in his latest piece, Inglethorpe explains how watching young players make subtle changes to their game through hard-work and dedication has given him the most pride in recent months...

It's been a very enjoyable five or six months for me since I arrived here on Merseyside.

I've learned so much about the place, the staff and the players. I have a much better idea now of where I can help and what I think we can achieve.

I suppose on the pitch there have only been a few real low-points so far, and they have come in the form of long-term injuries to four of our young players: Marc Pelosi, Jakub Sokolik, Brad Smith and Samed Yesil.

These injuries have been really significant to the lads, who were progressing so well.

Seeing four talented boys ruled out for such a long time is really tough. And even though they are all doing very well with their recovery at the moment, it's still disappointing when young players miss nine months of playing time.

That's the negatives - there have been so many positives.

On the pitch, the likes of Jordon Ibe, Kristoffer Peterson, Jack Dunn and Jordan Lussey, who have come into the U21s, have progressed well. Lloyd Jones is in the same position as those lads as well.

It's been really good working with the likes of Joao Carlos Teixeira and Krisztian Adorjan on a daily basis, too. And then there's Stephen Sama, Craig Roddan, Ryan McLaughlin, Nacho and the rest of the lads, who have all been great since I arrived. 

I hope they've enjoyed working with me.

But the easy part has been settling down in the city. The welcome I have received has been superb. Away from football, it's been really easy for me to adjust to life in the city and I have enjoyed every single minute of it.

That's made the job an awful lot easier. So many people have come forward to help me at the club, from the people in our offices at Chapel Street, to the Academy and Melwood. They certainly make the transition very, very easy. I'll always be very grateful for that.

I've been lucky in that I have had plenty of memorable moments so far, without one particularly standing out above the rest.

But I think that some of my proudest moments here at Liverpool have come on the training ground at our Kirkby complex, where I have seen a player do something which I know they have been working on.

It's so fulfilling for me to see them suddenly work in a different way, or have a shift in mentality. I take real pride when I watch a player do something good that we've worked hard on and something that he has been keen to master. 

These are the sort of under-the-radar things that give you the most satisfaction in the job.

The easy thing would be to point towards something like the Inter Milan performance at home, where I thought that, as a team, we were excellent. There was a lot of talent on the pitch - that was before we sustained the injuries I mentioned earlier - and I really enjoyed watching the boys play that night.

But for me, the best moments, come out on the training fields at the Academy.

Last Monday we drew 1-1 at Old Trafford against Manchester United. The result means United finish above us in the Barclays U21 Premier League.

But we'll be meeting them again on Tuesday in the semi-final of the tournament - and that's a game we're all really looking forward to.

As for the game on Monday just gone, it was a real shame because we began in a wonderful fashion. We played really well for the first five or six minutes; passed the ball really well and Jonjo Shelvey scored a fantastic goal. 

I said it at the time, the goal Jonjo scored at the Stretford End, a stunning 30-yard drive, would be good enough to grace any Premier League match.

But then disappointment came a minute later as we went down to 10 men and Stephen Sama was sent off.

It spoiled the game a little because it ruined the flow of the match. Late on in the game, United found an equaliser and we were forced to settle for the draw.

But I'd say there were positives.

For instance; Kristoffer Peterson, who is a terrific lad to work with, recognises generally that defending is something he would like to work on.

The fact that we went down to 10 men gave him the chance to work on something that isn't a particular strength of his - and you can't really re-create the intensity of that experience in training.

So, the sending off was bad for the game, but some of our players, like Kristoffer, certainly gained something from it.

Young Jack Dunn worked tirelessly up front with little reward, and the manner in which he went about doing it was really, really intelligent.

He was very clever when it came to deciding when to press and how to press and I was very impressed with how hard he worked.

This sort of scenario is not something that you would want to happen all the time, but, as I said afterwards, if you are going to have that experience, of going down to 10 men and being forced to defend for long periods, then you'd rather have it in an U21 game, than have it as your first time in the Premier League on your debut.