Liverpool Insight: Reserves Flourish As First Team Flounders

Bill Shankly used to say “there are two great teams on Merseyside – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves”. It was a thinly veiled dig at Everton of course, but the essence of what the Scotsman said was true. For years, Liverpool invested serious time and energy into their second string, and subsequently reaped the rewards.

A quick flick through reserve team line-ups in the 1970s and 1980s reads like a who’s who of Liverpool’s history. John Toshack, Steve Heighway, Terry McDermott and Ian Rush all earned their spurs with the B team, coached expertly by club legends Roy Evans, Ronnie Moran and Joe Fagan.

All went on to play massive roles in the club’s domination at home and abroad, whilst others – Jim Magilton, Kevin Sheedy, John Durnin – would go on to enjoy fruitful careers elsewhere.

The role of the reserve team at Liverpool has undoubtedly diminished in recent years. The availability of ready-made first-teamers from abroad has reduced the need to seek quality replacements from within, and the overall dip in standard of reserve team football is undeniable.

But now, with UEFA insisting upon home-grown quotas for clubs competing in European competition, the onus is back on the second stringers to up their game. And at Liverpool, the signs are promising.

Last night’s emphatic 4-1 win over Hull City, at Tranmere Rovers’ Prenton Park ground, gave John McMahon’s side a six-point gap at the top of the FA Premier Reserve League (North), and the fact that several of the side on show have tasted first-team action in recent months suggests that Rafa Benitez’s oft-criticised scouting and recruitment policy is now beginning to bear fruit.

McMahon, softly-spoken, assured and emblazoned with a ‘team-first’ mentality, has high hopes for many of his young charges. Indeed, Liverpool’s indifferent start to the season has already enabled the likes of Daniel Ayala, Nathan Eccleston, Damien Plessis and Jay Spearing to make surprise appearances in the senior side. All have been regulars in the reserves over the past 18 months.

Benitez is known to have high hopes for Ayala, a tall, no-nonsense central defender with a stare that could frighten most, as well as several others within the side. His fellow Spaniard, Dani Pacheco, attracts plenty of interest with his quick, clever style. Not surprising given that the 18-year-old spent his formative footballing years at Barcelona’s fabled La Masia training complex. Benitez may have reservations about the youngster’s lack of physical presence in a notoriously demanding league, but talent-wise Pacheco has the world at his feet.

McMahon was quick to play down the impact his young stars are having on the club after last night’s game, telling Goal.com UK exclusively that “we always tell the players to concentrate only on the team element, individuals come second.”

When asked if the likes of Eccleston, Ayala and Darby have benefitted from their ascent to the first team in recent weeks, he is in no doubt.

“Definitely,” he says, “They are learning all the time and it is a great experience for those players. None of them are the finished article, but they are learning every day about how to use the ball better, how to work the space, and about the team ethic.”

McMahon has managed to create a consistency with his reserve team which was lacking last term under Gary Ablett (now manager of League One side Stockport County), and has been missing from the present first team, as they have faltered this season. Whilst Benitez is currently struggling to string two results together, his second team is going from strength to strength, despite suffering a similar curse to the senior side in terms of injuries.

Young Hungarian Zsolt Poloskei  - another for whom Benitez has plenty of time – has joined the Reds’ lengthy casualty list with a serious knee injury, which looks set to keep him out for up to nine months. McMahon admits to being “devastated” for the talented, ball-playing midfielder.

So whilst the standard of reserve team football may have dropped dramatically since the days of Shankly and co, and the fact that Liverpool’s second team will play just 18 games this season makes it hard to establish any kind of consistency, McMahon and Benitez remain confident that it won’t be long before Merseyside will once again have two great teams. And neither of them will play in blue.