Ben Doak impresses but there are other reasons why Liverpool enjoy the best Premier League 2 season in 5 years
Jurgen Klopp and Barry Lewtas Head Coach of the Liverpool U21 team during a training session at the AXA Training Center on May 23, 2023
Liverpool's top-flight side may have failed significantly this season in its attempt to maintain its position as the closest rival to state-owned Manchester City in the top flight.
But there are no such problems for the Under-21s, who have had the best Premier League 2 run in five years to finish second behind Man City after a strong second half of the season.
With several players also making their way to the senior team, it has been an encouraging season for the Reds Under-21 team, who continue to reap the rewards of playing with the first team at AXA Academy there for more than two years. last year. .
And while preparing and delivering talent to Jurgen Klopp and his coaching staff remains a priority, the fact that individual progress is reflected collectively is a remarkable achievement in mind. mind of U21 coach Barry Lewtas.
"The result is not something we want to make public because there are so many different things that can happen at this level in one season," he told ECHO. “Setting a specific goal would be naive.
"But as the season progressed, the boys pushed and wanted to finish as high as possible. They realized that their performance represented them, so it was a matter of everything together, like like they want to show off their abilities. They did well, they will all benefit."
Liverpool have won just one of their first seven Premier League games before that, contrary to the usual trend, they were encouraged by a number of players returning on loan at the start of the new year and have not lost just one of the last 10. here most.
"Perhaps it gave us the opportunity to build on what we did in the first half of the season," Lewtas said. "There were some parts of the game that were really strong but we couldn't really put them all together. But as the season went on, we seemed to be much more complete in our performance. We had the best defensive record in the league, and then we nailed our attacking play.
"Personally Ben Doak and Harvey Blair were a real threat, our midfielders had more chances in the box and that helped Layton Stewart score a lot of goals in the No.
In particular, Doak was one of the driving forces in the race to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Youth League, where Liverpool were controversially beaten to Sporting Lisbon after the young Scottish winger was sent off after just eight minutes due to an injury. motion.
The 17-year-old, signed for £600,000 from Celtic last summer, was quickly promoted from the Under-18s to the Under-21s, where he marked his debut by scoring the winning goal. 2-1 in a mini-derby against Everton, and was then given the field. five times for the first team.
"Ben hasn't even been here a year and has made tremendous progress," said Lewtas, who also reached the last eight of the Premier League International Cup before an unfortunate loss to Crystal Palace. “It was important that we didn't take away from him what he already had as an extremely direct and energetic wide player, and we worked really hard on him. in the parts of the game that we think he can develop and improve on.
"He still has a lot of work to do, but for a boy who has moved from one big club to another .
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