Liverpool need youth to regain their status

Liverpool must invest in youth players in order to regain their footballing status

Let’s address a very simple yet obvious fact about Liverpool football club. They simply can’t attract/obtain the big-name players when competing with other clubs anymore. The Anfield experience and the club’s extensive history doesn’t do much in the modern footballing world when it comes to attracting players, and the big stars just don’t choose Liverpool.

I’m a Liverpool fan, and I have no problem admitting that in recent years we have slipped down in status, from a successful team with a rich history to a team that always has promise, yet continues to disappoint.

Now, call me optimistic, but I think if Liverpool invest correctly in youth and promising young players, they stand a far better chance of returning to the heights of European football.

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It’s evident that we can’t go and compete for the biggest and best names in football, and despite having the spending power you can’t expect clubs to choose us when we fail to maintain Champions League football.

If you’re a rival fan, this probably makes you laugh, but things are certainly changing and you can’t really deny that. We made it into two finals last season, one left us 45 minutes away from returning to the Champions League. How did our poor team (let’s be honest, the players aren’t all phenomenal) manage to reach two finals? Jurgen Klopp.

Currently, the biggest and most promising thing about our club is our manager. He led a poor team that wasn’t built by him, and took them all the way into two finals. I believe after tying him down to a six-year contract, Liverpool’s best chance of success is to allow Klopp to do what he does best – develop players.

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People seem to have a massive grudge against signing young players, unless they haven’t heard of them before and the press uses the world ‘wonderkid’ when describing them. The best trait Klopp has alongside his passion is the impressive record of turning cheap youngsters into some of the best players in the world, and if Liverpool are to compete at the top levels, they need to utilise these skills.

It won’t come quickly, but getting some solid and effective tactics, a strong team spirit, and developing talented players could see massive improvements in the coming seasons.

However optimistic we may be however, the changing football world could very well ruin this idea – as even smaller clubs start splashing the cash for typically average players. Spending seems to very much be a key factor of the game, and while I’d love our club to stick to its cultural identity of developing stars and not buying titles, the way modern football is going it might eventually be a must.