The Liverpool FC reserve team have had an excellent season under the tutelage of manager Gary Ablett and his coaching team, collecting the majority of trophies available to them, hosted both home and abroad. The side is brimming with young players, ranging from 16-19 years old, and has a wide mixture of nationalities in the dressing room. Rafael Benitez and his youth scouting department have searched the globe for the best talent on offer and consistently found quality youngsters in all positions. The players are constantly growing and developing their technique and physique to a Premier League standard, and for the arduous rigours of football in England, with ambitions to break into the first team and play at Anfield in front of 45,000 fans. They currently play at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, home of Super League club Warrington Wolves, where they regularly pull in crowds of thousands, as well as being broadcast nationally on LFC TV.While the reserves are trained and moulded by the coaching staff, the people they respect most are those they are trying to emulate: the first team. They can access the opportunity to learn from them in a game situation when a 1st XI player is undergoing rehabilitation from an injury. This season Agger, Alonso, Kewell, Lucas, Pennant and Skrtel have taken part in 9 reserve matches between each other.
The team is a large group of aspiring Reds, including both players who have succeeded and played for the first team, and upcoming starlets who want to realise their potential and become promoted. Numerous reserve players have and will be sent away on loan to the lower divisions, being predominantly domestic sourced players like Anderson, Lindfield and Threlfall. There they learn invaluable experiences in different sporting environments and can gain more regular football at an often higher competitive level with significant consequences.
The most notable players for the future (to this opinionated fan) are: Insua, Plessis, Nemeth, Hobbs, Pacheco and Bruna, who cover the variety of positions from defence to attack. From this collection of names, our squad has a particularly continental feel, with sometimes Benitez himself travelling to seal the deal, especially when prising away the jewels of Barcelona and Real Madrid youth teams. Such players represent a new breed of exciting and creative players who could follow in the footsteps of a player like Fabregas, as he made a similar move from Spain, and hopefully become as successful. Three reserves have played for the first team and realised their dream, and even more have been called up to the match day sixteen. Ablett and his team continue training the young pretenders in the ways of the first team, and hope Benitez invites more to join him and the team for a top flight match.
Liverpool FC Reserves 2007/08:
- Daniel Sanchez Ayala (Spain)
- Dean Bouzanis (Australia)
- Jordy Brouwer (Netherlands)
- Gerardo Alfredo Bruna Blanco (Spain)
- Ryan Crowther (England)
- Stephen Darby (England)
- Francisco Duran (Spain)
- Nabil El Zhar (Morocco)
- Ryan Flynn (England)
- Jack Hobbs (England)
- Ronald Huth (Paraguay)
- Emiliano Insua (Argentina)
- David Martin (England)
- Krisztian Nemeth (Hungary)
- Daniel Pacheco (Spain)
- Damien Plessis (France)
- Ray Putterill (England)
- Mikel San Jose Dominguez (Spain)
- Andras Simon (Hungary)
- Jay Spearing (England)
Barclays Premier Reserve League North champions
Played 18, Points Total 43 (W 13, D 4, L 1, F 31, A 8, GD 23)
National Barclays Premier Reserve League champions
Play-off versus Barclays Premier Reserve League South champions Aston Villa (3-0, 5th May 2008)
Dallas Cup (League & Knock-out)
Won: Final versus Tigres (3-0, 23 March 2008)
Liverpool Senior Cup (Knock-out)
Runner-Up: Final versus Marine (0-1, 24 April 2008)
Lancashire County Cup (Knock-out)
N/A: Final versus Manchester United (TBD)
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