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Results & Fixtures
Liverpool U21s 5 - Sunderland U21s 2, Monday September 17th
After not having played in a couple of weeks, Liverpool's Under-21s were back in league action yesterday at Anfield against Sunderland. Manager Alex Inglethorpe named an extremely strong side that was full of first-team intrigue and implication. Tiago Ilori made his Liverpool debut, partnering Lloyd Jones at center back, and the Martin Kelly rehab tour continued, while Jon Flanagan rounded out the back four. Despite the first team experience available to Inglethorpe, he named a 32 year old central midfield pairing of Cameron Brannagan and Jordan Rossiter, with Jordan Ibe, Raheem Sterling, and Luis Alberto lining up in front of them and behind front man Jack Dunn. Sunderland came into the match unbeaten and in 2nd place in the Barclays U21 Premier League table, only one point behind leaders Fulham.
Liverpool conceded two very impressive early goals and in general played quite passively in the first half, but Jack Dunn managed to sneak one back after some neat play with Kelly from the right. It was an entirely different story in the second half, with Alberto generally dictating play and scoring a lovely equalizer set up by Sterling. Sterling then finished at the mouth of the goal on a play that could have seen two Sunderland players sent off to make it 3-2. Jones reacted rashly to a clumsy challenge—itself potentially deserving of a red—and headbutted his way into a sending off. Hopefully Jones learns from mistakes such as these, and the sending off left Inglethorpe with some tinkering to do. And tinker he did. Sterling slotted in at right back and impressed mightily. His offensive play from the position was very impressive, and he both set up Alberto for the fourth, and won the penalty on which Alberto completed his impressive performance with a hattrick to seal a 5-2 win for the reds. Liverpool moves up to 6th place in the table.
Liverpool team: Danny Ward, Sama, Kelly (captain), Ilori, Jones, Flanagan, Rossiter, Brannagan, Ibe, Alberto, Sterling, Dunn. Unused subs": Yusuf Mersin, Stephen Sama, Adam Morgan, Craig Roddan, Ryan McLaughlin.
Next Match: Monday, September 23rd, 7:00pm BST/2:00pm EST, away to Manchester City live on LFC.tv.
Liverpool U18s 2 - Chelsea U18s 4, Saturday September 14th
Neil Critchley's debut as Liverpool U18 coach didn't go as planned, as the reds were beaten 4-2 against Chelsea at the weekend. Starlets Sergi Canos, Pedro Chirivella, and Jerome Sinclair were not available due to some combination of international clearance and injury issues. Center back Daniel Cleary continued his goalscoring streak from the USA tournament, leveling the game, and recent England U16 call up Adam Phillips gave Liverpool the lead going into halftime, but the lads fell apart in the second half, conceding three goals in a 10 minute stretch to lose the result. The result leaves Liverpool with only 3 points from 3 matches, good for 7th in the table. In an interview with the official site, Critchley assessed the squad, the current climate of youth development at Liverpool, and his long-term relationship with Daniel Tricket-Smith.
Liverpool team: Ryan Crump, Dharius Waldron, Sam Hart (Dave Roberts), Cleary, Tom Brewitt, Nathan Burke, Harry Wilson (Alex O'Hanlon), Phillips, Trickett-Smith, Sheyi Ojo, Ryan Kent.
General News & Notes
Liverpool Hands Trials to MTK Youngsters
Following the moderate success of current academy center back Kristof Polgar, Liverpool have dipped back into the MTK Budapest FC well and offered trials to two of its brightest prospects. Balint Vogyicska is a midfielder who is the current captain of the Hungary Under-16 side and apparently scored 20 goals for the MTK U-16s last season, earning a call up to the clubs Under-19 side, and Patrik Demjen is also a Hungarian U-16 international, and is a goalkeeper noted for his footwork. As with most Liverpool trials, these may well come to nothing, but we'll certainly keep an eye out for word on any progress.
In case you missed Eliz's or Ed's articles on the subject, here's just another heads up if you were wondering why you didn't see Teixeira's name in the lineup above. Teixeira indeed has sealed his move to Brentford until January, and made his debut in the dying moments of the League One side's 4-3 victory at Tranmere at the weekend.