Academy'Being around the senior team is great for the development of our young players'
Rob Page has spoken of his pride after several Academy players were involved as Liverpool beat Southampton in the Carabao Cup third round.
Arne Slot handed starts to Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni at Anfield, while Jayden Danns came off the bench in the second half as the Reds advanced to round four with a 2-1 win on Tuesday night.
Kaide Gordon, Kieran Morrison, Tommy Pilling and Rhys Williams were also part of the matchday squad, and that meant Page had to rotate his U21s side for last Sunday’s 2-1 Premier League 2 defeat by Manchester United.
Page told Liverpoolfc.com: “We could have had Kaide, Kieran, Tommy, Dannsy, Rhys for the United game, but a big part of this job is developing players.
“If the first team are asking for four or five of our boys to be around them then we are doing something right.
“Those lads all trained with the first team and that’s why we didn’t have them available for us. That is great because that is what we want and it is part of their development.
“I asked some of the U18s players to step up – which they did – and I thought there was some big performances individually.
“I can’t fault their effort and they worked their socks off again. It was disappointing because it’s another defeat but we’ve got to deal with that and move on to the next one.
“We created some half-chances which we could have done better with, but overall it was an opportunity for five of our lads to go and train with the first team. That opens up the door for other players to take a jersey and show themselves.”
Michael Laffey opened the scoring against United at the Academy but the visitors fought back to claim the points.
Page hopes his side can tighten up defensively when they visit Ipswich Town on Saturday (12pm BST kick-off).
He added: “I’ve said to the players in development football when you come up against decent teams – and United had a few players in their side with first-team experience – and you gift them opportunities like we did then you are going to get punished.
“I told them I couldn’t fault their effort but when we look back at the goals, I don’t think they had to work too hard to get them. We have to get that out of our game and give ourselves a foundation and a chance to go on and win games.”
Page continued: “Laffey has been excellent for us.
“I played him as a No.10 off Figgy [Keyrol Figueroa] and he’s not played there too many times but we didn’t have many options.
“Michael gave us energy and support for Figgy. I put Davo [Josh Davidson] in midfield and he did well. So there was some big performances from us, but Laffey was the pick of the bunch.
“We did have chances. Figgy hit the post and Trent [Kone-Doherty] was always a threat and Carter [Pinnington] had a free header from a set-piece that he was disappointed with.”