It's the 11th of April, Man City await. Who's starting right back, is it experienced vice captain of the club Jamie Carragher? No. Is it untested CB Martin Skrtel? No, it's 18 year old Liverpool born John Flanagan, making his debut against the league's most expensive squad in a vital game for both sides.
Faced with marking the likes of Milner, Balotelli, Dzeko and Johnson the young red put in a near perfect game, giving the opposing wingers nothing to work with leading to focusing a large portion of their play to the opposite wing when they were allowed to retain possession. Showing a lot of defensive capability with some perfectly time challenges the young lad was looking on to keeping his spot for the next game, Arsenal away.
This match would prove to be a tougher test of his abilities, as Arsenal lined up Samir Nasri to try out the young RB. For 20 minutes Flanagan was again the focus of much attention as he put in a solid performance keeping Nasri from having too much of an effect on the game, this was until Liverpool's youngest ever player Jack Robinson entered the game replacing the injured Aurelio. The lad from Warrington made his debut in the final game of the 2010-2011 season, coming on for Babel for the final stages of the game in what ended up being Benitez's last game in charge.
Marking Theo Walcott, one of the fastest players in world football many people would have expected Robsinon to stuggle but showing his excellent sense of positioning he managed to keep Walcott from ever using his pace to beat him and blocked near enough every cross the winger tried to deliver. The youngster also showed the attacking side of his game, constantly breaking from the defence and creating extra space on the pitch for Suarez and Meireles with his overlaps and 1-2's with the players, showing similarities to Jon Arne Riise.
Eventually, Walcott was replaced by Arshavin who also struggled to beat the young left back while Nasri was still having problems with Flanagan, who made his mark on the frenchman with a strong challenge from behind. The two academy full backs look set to keep their place in the team against Birmingham at Anfield, with the Reds currently suffering from a defensive injury crisis.
The set of fullbacks, along with Shelvey, N'goo, Toni Silva, Suso, Kelly, Sterling and Wisdom are all considered hot prospects for the club, who will be inspired by Dalglish's decision to include the young lads in important matches and will be keen to receive their own call up after the 6-0 demolition of the Manchester United U18 side on the weekend. The future is bright for Liverpool and we can only hope the players can put in more performances of the same quality over the coming years.
Monday, 18 April 2011
Monday, 17 January 2011
Darren Bent
Today's big story is that Aston Villa have had an £18m bid for Darren Bent accepted by Sunderland. Villa who are currently looking like relegation contenders really need a striker.
Gabriel Agbonlahor is no goalscorer, blessed with lightning pace the guy is very useful for running at a defence and catching people out of position but he has no natural finishing abilities and Gerard has recently switched him to the left wing, a position he played in his younger days.
Emile Heskey again not the greatest threat, he has the strength and power to unsettle defences and on paper a strikeforce of Heskey and Agbonlahor looks promising but the two have never clicked.
John Carew is sort of a hybrid between the 2, he doesnt have the pace of Agbonlahor or the power of Heskey but on his day can be a game changer but that day is few and far between and a string of injuries has reduced the big Norwegian to limited chances.
A striker like Bent who scored a very impressive 24 league goals is exactly what Villa need, the guy is a natural goalscorer with the pace to unlock a defence, he's already bagged 8 goals for Sunderland this season, double of all of Villa's strikers put together (Heskey x3 and Delfouneso x1). He would also add to the quota of British players already at the squad which is vital for any European and PL Registration rules in this modern game.
Gabriel Agbonlahor is no goalscorer, blessed with lightning pace the guy is very useful for running at a defence and catching people out of position but he has no natural finishing abilities and Gerard has recently switched him to the left wing, a position he played in his younger days.
Emile Heskey again not the greatest threat, he has the strength and power to unsettle defences and on paper a strikeforce of Heskey and Agbonlahor looks promising but the two have never clicked.
John Carew is sort of a hybrid between the 2, he doesnt have the pace of Agbonlahor or the power of Heskey but on his day can be a game changer but that day is few and far between and a string of injuries has reduced the big Norwegian to limited chances.
A striker like Bent who scored a very impressive 24 league goals is exactly what Villa need, the guy is a natural goalscorer with the pace to unlock a defence, he's already bagged 8 goals for Sunderland this season, double of all of Villa's strikers put together (Heskey x3 and Delfouneso x1). He would also add to the quota of British players already at the squad which is vital for any European and PL Registration rules in this modern game.
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