adminLONDON. — Brendan Rodgers has warned the rest of the English Premier League, his young stars are coming to get them. Liverpool blew away a massively experienced, expensively assembled Manchester City side at the weekend, with a side whose average age was 23, and with SEVEN players aged 24 or under.
Only one of the team who took City apart was over the age of 26, and Rodgers believes that not only did the performance symbolise everything the club is working towards, but also suggested they can challenge at the highest level if he can keep the team together.
“I thought the performance was unbelievable when you consider the age of our players and look at the level of players they have — world class players,” the Reds boss insisted.
“It was a great performance and a really good symbol of how we’ve been working. That’s the exciting thing for me and I said earlier in the season that once they began to settle and understand what’s expected of them it can be an exciting future for the team here.
“We have a lot of young players, and if you track their ages then it’s very exciting. If they all stay together then it can be a real exciting time here at this club.”
Liverpool had five players under the age of 22 against City, and to add to that nucleus Rodgers also has 19 year old Jordon Ibe, Javier Manquillo, 20, and 22 year old John Flanagan to add to the mix, as well as 19 year old World Cup striker Divock Origi to arrive in the summer, and Andre Wisdom,21, to return from loan.
It is a truly frightening young team, led by the 22 year old Philippe Coutinho, who showed against City that he is ready to assume the world class status his former team mate and close friend Neymar reckons the Brazilian has the capacity to become.
And Rodgers believes the most exciting thing about his young midfielder, is that the best is firmly to come. And already, the manager believes a player he paid just £7m for is already priceless. Asked how much Coutinho is now worth, he replied: “I wouldn’t know.
“You can certainly multiply it a number of times though. I wouldn’t want to put a value on him. What he gives to the team, he offers that gold dust to how we play.
“He’s a wonderful player. If you see his videos playing futsal when he was eleven or twelve in Brazil, he’s playing the same game now only as an adult. We put him in when he was 19. We knew he had ability, it was just about trusting that ability and allowing it to grow.
“We gave him a new contract to reward him for what he’s done, but before he did sign we spoke about what he needs to do to go the next level and about scoring goals more regularly because if he can add goals consistently to the talent he’ll be right up there as a world class talent.” — The Mirror.
Online Reporter