McAuley aims to bridge the gap

Jul 30 2007 by Chris Wright, Liverpool Daily Post

HAVING had a foot in both Liverpool’s bases at Kirkby and Melwood over the past decade, coach Hugh McAuley is well placed to know what it takes to make the move between the two.

And now back in the role at the Academy as Liverpool under-18s coach, he is determined to help the youngsters in his care make the switch to Melwood on a more regular basis.

McAuley has come back to Kirkby from Melwood to help improve the flow of players moving into Gary Ablett’s reserve squad and ultimately Rafael Benitez’s first team.

But firstly he has been getting his new squad of scholars, a number of whom are in their first year as full-time footballers, prepared for the start of the FA Premier Academy League, which begins with a trip to Aston Villa on Saturday, August 18.

The U18s started their pre-season programme on Saturday with a 4-1 victory over Plymouth Argyle at the Kirkby Academy with goals from Marvin Pourie, Daniel Pachecho, David Amoo and Nathan Ecclestone.

Coach McAuley said: “We fielded two teams and the players had 45 minutes each. It was a mixture of the Academy and the young Melwood based players. We played some decent football and the lads worked very hard. At this stage it’s all about getting the players ready and fit for the new season.”

They now face Carlisle on Wednesday, also at Kirkby (2pm), before a final match in this country a week on Saturday at home to Birmingham (11am).

Then they will play in a four-team tournament in Spain from August 10-15, which will be hosted by Villarreal, before returning to face Aston Villa in the Midlands to start the campaign proper.

McAuley is happy how things have been going since he returned, after five years working with the reserves at Melwood.

He said: “We have been back for a few weeks now and we are working hard. But there are a lot of things to do.

“It is about getting them ready for the first game against Aston Villa on August 18 and for the rest of the season.

“Hopefully we can get them working well and get some positive results over the season.”

While Liverpool have under-performed due to a number of factors in the Academy League over the last two seasons, they have managed to win back-to-back FA Youth Cups. The defence of that trophy doesn’t begin until December. McAuley would be delighted to complete the hat-trick, but is not getting ahead of himself.

He added: “They have done exceptionally well in the last two years winning the Youth Cup. They were all good players individually and as a team. But they have moved on, some to Melwood and others elsewhere. But that is usually the way in Youth football.

“Now we have a new group of players and it is all about improving them and moving them on.”

Having moved to Melwood himself and seen both sides of Liverpool’s coaching set-up he is hoping he can improve the flow of players looking to emulate the likes of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher all the way through to the first team.

McAuley said: “I know the Academy well having worked here for a number of years and I am enjoying being back and working with some talented young players. It is something I enjoy, working with young players.

“But having been at Melwood for the past five years under different managers and staff, I have learned at lot about the way things work and the standard that is required to get players down to that squad. Having worked under Houllier and recently with Rafa (Benitez) I know what is required. There is a big squad of players down at Melwood and you need to be talented to be part of that. But our job is hopefully to try and help the young players here make that move either over the next few months or coming years.

“We are all working together to try and achieve that and with Piet Hamberg, Dave Shannon and John Owens here at the Academy that is what we will be working towards.

“We know we have to improve and get as many players down to Melwood in the reserve and first team as possible. It is not an easy task because there are a lot of good players down there. But hopefully we can have some success in doing that.”