How Legends McManaman and Fowler Can Inspire Liverpool Youngsters

Liverpool have taken steps to try to ensure the progress of the next batch of youngsters from the Academy in the coming years, namely by signing up a trio of former club greats to help mentor and coach the Under-21 and Under-18 squads.

Three players who had their best Reds days during the 1990s—full-back Rob Jones, winger Steve McManaman and striker Robbie Fowler—will assist youth-team coaches Alex Inglethorpe and Neil Critchley in guiding the youth players at Kirkby.

First-team manager Brendan Rodgers has signalled his approval of the move and told the club's official website how the three can help the current crop of kids:

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They are giving them little pointers and passing on experiences from their own careers to help the youngsters. The young players coming through are picking up vital bits of information. I'm pleased that it's working well. Sometimes managers feel the need to distance themselves from players like that but I love what this institution is all about at Liverpool.

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The young players at the club who will benefit from such a link-up include 19-year-old Ryan McLaughlin, a promising attack-minded full-back, Liverpool's youngest-ever senior player Jerome Sinclair, who can play anywhere in attack, and Adam Morgan, a predatory striker who has played twice for the first team already.

What the former players can bring to these youngsters is clearly threefold.

Firstly, there is the inspirational, or mental, factor.

Fowler, McManaman and Jones played nearly 1,000 first-team games for Liverpool combined. All played for England, totalling 71 international games between them. Working on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis with three players who achieved so much success in a big first-team environment cannot be anything other than great for the younger lads.

They can tell them about the expectations from the crowd, how to fit into the dressing room as a new, young player, what the manager looks for when they are not in the team and how to deal with performing well not just several times a season, but every time they take to the pitch.

In the case of McManaman and Fowler, they can also relate to the struggle of stepping up from being a stand-out player at reserve, or as it is nowadays the U-21 level, to being someone who can compete with established seniors to make the grade.

Fowler and Jones in particular can also speak from experience regarding spells out of the team and how to fight back, whether it's from injury or from losing their place through form and competition—a vital skill for any player.

Technically, all three were very good players and will be able to pass on small pointers and examples of technique, though this is likely something that the coaches have been working on intensively already throughout the age groups.

The final potential offering for Liverpool's youngsters is the sharing of tactical experience: how to maintain position or decide when to get forward from right-back, perhaps, or how to anticipate a near-post cross or when to hold the run inside the penalty area for the forwards.

McManaman and Fowler were extremely instinctive in their play as well as technically gifted, and if they are able to pass on even one method of making a better run, forming a better body shape to shoot or properly reacting to a missed opportunity, it could make the difference between an Academy player proving good enough to step up to the first team and one who is sold off.

There is very little downside to such a move from the football club and a wide scope for potential improvements for the youngsters. In this situation, everybody should be a winner over the long term.

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