They really don’t need Gakpo though. Not that it ever stopped them going for the marquee signings though.
United have never lacked quality strikers coming in though. Even with the current setbacks rashford has had over the last 2 years, they still have generated a Garnacho and Greenwood.
Who was the last academy player who went on to become a key forward player for Liverpool after sterling which was a good 10 odd years ago
Their issue is that all of their attacking players are most comfortable playing in one of the wider roles. Martial is probably the closest they have to a central striker, but even he is more comfortable on the left. They can make do to an extent, but it’s a reason they have been most effective when playing an open game where the ball forward can be put in front of the wide guys, rather than in the more compact games where you have to get the ball to the central strikers feet and play off him. Gapko’s ability as a 10 might have seen him be able to fit in that role, like Bobby does for us, but dont know if that was what they were thinking.
The point still is that TAA aside , we don’t have any academy players who can realistically claim to be a part of a 23 man matchday squad on a regular basis…
Curtis is one but if all the others are fit , he wouldn’t be in that reckoning.
Other English clubs have a better track record of academy players and it’s something Liverpool should be trying to address
Looking at the last few years among the top 6-7 teams.
Utd , Chelsea , Arsenal are comfortably ahead of us.
Then we’ve got City who probably are on par with us. And mid table and other teams have youth graduates with a clearer route to first team football than us.
Daresay even Tottenham are probably ahead of us there.
I talk about coming in from the youth team onwards.
I wonder if he is literally?
I do think we need to have atleast 3 academy players
good enough to be in a matchday squad. Which is where we are lacking.
Bajcetic and Doak can’t be counted in that as well…
Maybe kelleher makes the cut , but he’s a goalie who’s probably on his way out.
I’d still say it is something that needs to be worked upon. Especially when you consider a guy like Sancho was considered surplus to requirements in city
Things might improve now Kirkby is used for academy players
I agree. It is a much needed step
He won’t be. I expect firmino to be staying for another 2 years at the very least.
How many City first teamers came from their academy?
I said we were on par with city if we equate out TAA with foden
But city’s youth academy let go the likes of Sancho
Reports have resurfaced of Pep talking about him in the summer as a player who was a “missing link.” It’s impossible to piece together the exact context, but it would at least fit if they felt Bobby’s increasing unavailability left a gap in the squad and he had been identified as someone who could take over that role.
When I first heard the link before the world cup all I knew of him then was as a LW and it didnt make sense for us to have interest given Dias plays there and Jota and Nunez can do so too. Even with injuries to two of those, it’s difficult to make sense of this without thinking he had been primarily earmarked to do something else than compete for that LW role.
And we let a few go as well?
I get your point though, particularly in financially challenging times its a good option to have players coming through.
The weapon LFC seem to have acquired with this guy as opposed to what is already on the books… we now seem to have a guy that can run at and dribble from deep/halfway line at the opposition defence. When we get the ball in similar areas now the player with the ball looks up and attempts an over the top kind of pass… The defence normally just moves back en-bloc keeping tight to the advancing forwards - Running directly at them brings another dimension
Not a knock on Gakpo or any other transfers , but an equal quality guy coming from within always makes much better sense.
I do think we will improve with the new setup and get better talent going on forward …
Curtis could have an air of Cody about him if/when he picks the ball up and runs at the back four
In recent years the youth set up has produced Trent and Jones for the first team and has made big profit by selling on our more marginal players. Adding in players like Doak and Bajcetic on the fringes, then expecting anything more than that in an already successful side is just not realistic.
As a fan you can either want your side to be perpetually competitive in the biggest competitions or want it full of home grown players. No one gets to reliably have both. Even a club like Barca has over 2 generations only reliably found room for their home grown kids to establish themselves during periods of relative struggles (the beginning of the Pep era when he needed to move on a raft of overapid underperforming stars and now).
