'Brendan offers us great encouragement'
Liverpool U21s manager Michael Beale has spoken about the real sense of belief from his players that they can one day achieve their first-team dream, and revealed how it is all down to the faith shown in them by Brendan Rodgers.
The U21s return to action on Monday night for their first outing of 2015 when they face Manchester United at Leigh Sports Village, in a match you can watch live on LFCTV HD from 6.30pm GMT.
In a season which has so far seen both Jordan Rossiter and Jordan Williams make their senior debuts, the Academy have been on cloud nine.
But while the UEFA Youth League and FA Youth Cup sides have enjoyed great success so far, in contrast the U21s league programme has been disrupted - with only eight games played and a further 14 fixtures before the end of May.
Beale's charges last played competitively on December 17 when they drew 1-1 with Norwich City at Carrow Road, and before that their previous league contest was a 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur in October.
The boss therefore arranged a series of friendly games, while this period has given his players an opportunity to experience life training with the first team at Melwood.
"It's been frustrating for us because at the moment we are only playing one league game a month and we have had three league games after Christmas cancelled recently," Beale told Liverpoolfc.com.
"At the same time a lot of our boys have been very fortunate to have had the chance to train at Melwood on a regular basis, which has been brilliant for them.
"We have seen Jack Dunn, Kevin Stewart and Lloyd Jones go out on loan to get League Two experience with Cheltenham Town and they have done very well.
"We get every encouragement with Brendan and I'm in contact every day with Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh.
"I look at Rossiter and Williams as first-team squad players more than U21 players now and they are very comfortable in that environment.
"They are training very well and have kicked on to another level, and as an Academy we are in a very good position at the moment. It's all thanks to the manager and the belief he has in the young players."
A meeting with arch-rivals United is always a contest to look forward to, no matter what level it is played at, and earlier on in the campaign Rossiter and Williams both featured in a 1-1 draw.
Beale added: "We played ever so well and if you look back at that game, Rossiter and Williams went on to make their first-team debuts, and United have also had a lot of players playing in their first team.
"We had a great chance late on through Sergi Canos to win it and we came off the field disappointed we hadn't won. This will be a tough game but we are really looking forward to it. The lads can't wait for a game again.
"We have still got 14 games to go in the league, so it is a tough schedule but one we are looking forward to. Playing in the FA Youth Cup has enabled our boys to keep up their match sharpness, so that has been good for the group."