Liverpool U21 boss in positive mood following Irish friendlies

Liverpool Under-21 manager, Michael Beale, spoke positively about his team’s Irish start to their pre-season preparations following a convincing 6-0 victory over Waterford United at the RSC last Friday evening. The ex-Chelsea coach believes that these semi-regular trips across the Irish Sea are an ideal starting point for his young Reds on their season-long journey. 
 

“Yeah, I do because: these teams, their motivation to play Liverpool is huge; the teams are quite young; and they’re in the middle of their season - obviously we’ve only been back for five or six sessions,” said Beale. “We’ve got eight pre-season games so it’s not like these are our only games. These are our first ones and we also know that the clubs are not gonna do anything stupid or be reckless in tackles, so that’s an important part of our first couple of games as well. 

“We go off next week and we play PSV and Porto’s B teams so the level of competition goes up very, very quickly. I think the most important thing for us coming away is to have the players in isolation for 10 days, that’s really important for us, you know, where we can spend a lot time – it’s a young group – and pull them together.”

Waterford United, who currently sit bottom of the First Division, were unlikely to provide too stern a test for a Liverpool XI containing numerous youth internationals and a handful of players with experience of being in Premier League matchday squads. The Blues did however start brightly, and moved the ball around with confidence in the opening stages of the game, before their visitors’ superior quality inevitably began to tell. 

“Yeah you can see we were really rusty to start off with, and we were just trying out some different shapes,” reflected Beale, who enters his second year in the role. “So tonight we played 4-4-2 Diamond, then 4-3-3 and then we ended with a 3-Diamond-3. And it was clear, based on tonight, that when we play with lots of width and lots of pace we’re a different team altogether. 

“We’ve also got a number of players not here who can add to that width as well – [Harry] Wilson, [Ryan] Kent, [Sheyi] Ojo - that are away with the first team. We’re a club that’s blessed with lots and lots of good young wide players.” 
 

Despite those missing stars, Liverpool did arrive on Suirside with plenty of talented, high-profile young players. One such was German youth international, Samed Yesil, who has endured two awful injuries in recent years but now appears to be gradually returning to his former self. Yesil scored two of Liverpool’s six goals against Waterford, as well as winning (and subsequently missing) a second-half penalty. 

“That is Samed,” said Beale. “If he’s anywhere around the box the ball seems to fall for him and he scores. He’s like a magnet for the ball in the box. I thought he actually missed a couple tonight and he looked a bit frustrated but he keeps getting in there.”
 

“I think young Jack Dunn is a boy who was with our first team last pre-season, but got injured, and you see tonight he scored a goal and had two fantastic efforts in the first half. Jerome Sinclair obviously played at the end of last season, so you’ve got three really high-profile number-nines there, but obviously [Ex-Barcelona forward, Sergi] Canos and [Northern Ireland international, Ryan] McLaughlin are equally well known. We’ve got [a number of] good players - our captain in the second half, Cameron Brannagan, has been on the bench five times in the Premier League so the Waterford boys came up against good players tonight and, in the first half in particular, they made a game of it – a real game of it.”
 

One challenge for Beale as he readies his side for the upcoming season is to ensure motivation is kept at a high level, particularly for those players not chosen to take part in the senior side’s tour of Australasia. 
 

“You’re watching (the first team) and you’re watching Ryan Kent come on and that’s where the boys wanna be,” said Beale. “I’ll be honest one or two that are here probably wanted to be there because their peers are there and they feel they’ve missed out.” 
 

“But I’ve got to say that the attitude of our boys has been fantastic, the facility we’ve been using is excellent and we were probably over-ripe for this game really because we’ve been training double sessions, so they were probably a little bit tired going into the game. I thought overall it was a good performance, you [as a player] can’t get carried away because it was your first 45 minutes of the season so you know it’s not gonna be perfect before you play.” 

From a more parochial point of view, it was encouraging to see the prominence of a couple of Irish players within the Liverpool set-up, and Beale believes that it’s an exciting time for fans of the Boys in Green.  
 

“For Irish fans, Alex O’Hanlon in the middle of the pitch in the first half has come on ever so much,” said Beale. “He’s got a lovely left foot and he’s able to open a defence. Young Corey Whelan who played the second half obviously plays for you guys here in the Republic as a young international, and he’s an Under-18 but looks so assured and comfortable on the ball. 

“We’ve got another boy in our Under-18s, Conor Masterson, who’s gonna be a top player as well, so you’re blessed at the minute - Dan Cleary’s away with the first team, so there’s a lot of Irish players flying the flag over at Liverpool for you.” 
 

When pressed further on O’Hanlon in particular, Beale opened up about how he saw the former Home Farm player’s career developing. 
 

“I thought he did really well, I think it’s hard because in the first half the other midfielders weren’t connecting with him and he was having to do a lot himself. Alex is right in the middle of the team there, controlling our play first half and it’s a new position for him but we’re really asking him to extend his passing and show everyone what a lovely left foot he’s got.

“If you’re watching the whole game I suppose - I just go back and watch individual clips and I can see what Alex offers us and in the second half of last season there wasn’t a better passer of the ball playing Under-21s football in England, so that’s a massive plus for him. I think he’s gonna play centre-midfield. I don’t see him playing as a winger because he doesn’t have that pace to go past a full-back, which he might have had when he was younger. 

“He doesn’t like his one-v-one defending so I’m not sure he’s gonna be a left back, so at the moment playing in midfield is the best option. And as I say, his passing is top, top level – it’s Premier League level  - he’s just gotta put some more bits into his game but at the moment Alex is doing himself proud I think.” 
 

Another player to impress against Waterford was wing-back Ryan McLaughlin, already a senior international with Northern Ireland. McLaughlin has been hotly-tipped to make a first-team appearance at Liverpool for a number of seasons now, with injuries curtailing his progress. Playing on the right of midfield for this game, he hardly looked out of place, scoring once and posing a constant threat. 

“He is your modern-day attacking full-back, isn’t he?” said Beale. “His one-v-one defending is very good, I’ve just gotta make sure I give him enough challenge with this group, because he’s slightly older. So playing on the wing motivates him and tonight I thought he was very, very good, Ryan. He’s had two really hard years where he’s been injured but you can see when he’s in full flow like that he’s a very good player.”

Beale’s Under-21s went on to contest a more competitive clash two days later, defeating UCD 2-1 at the Belfield Bowl. They now step up their preparations against some top European academies before their season opens at home to Chelsea in early August.