Daniel Pacheco, LFC player _320

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is ready to unleash some of the club’s promising youngsters against Crewe in the Carling Cup - but not at the expense of a place in the next round of the competition.

While strengthening the Reds first team for a Barclays Premier League title challenge has been Benitez’s priority he is also building for the future and bolstered the reserve side with an array of talented youth players.

The policy has begun to reap its reward as Liverpool won the Premier Reserve League title last season in addition to their back-to-back FA Youth Cup wins in 2006 and 2007.

Emiliano Insua, Damien Plessis and Daniel Pacheco in particular are three players who have received encouraging reports from reserve-team coach Gary Ablett.

All three will hope to be involved in the third-round clash against the Coca-Cola League One side but Benitez is wary of fielding below-strength teams in the competition.

The Spaniard had his fingers burnt in 2005 when he fielded an inexperienced team in an FA Cup match against Burnley and was criticised for being disrespectful to the tradition of cup competitions in English football.

“It’s an important competition for us but it’s also one which gives us the chance to use some different players,” Benitez said

“We have to be careful though. We want to win the game and go on to win the tournament so while we can use some of our youngsters, we need to make sure we get the team right for winning.