AcademyYouth Cup preview: 'Hopefully we can perform well and get the result'
Marc Bridge-Wilkinson is hoping his Liverpool U18s side can maintain the standards they set against Arsenal in the previous round when they host Fulham in the FA Youth Cup on Sunday.
The young Reds defeated the Gunners 7-1 on home soil in round four, which included a hat-trick from Lewis Koumas and two apiece for Jayden Danns and Trent Kone-Doherty.
Danns, who took his tally to 20 goals for the season with a strike for the U21s against Fulham last weekend in Premier League 2, has four goals from two Youth Cup ties so far this term.
The fifth-round clash with the Cottagers is a 1pm GMT kick-off on Sunday that subscribers can watch live on LFCTV and LFCTV GO, with the winners to face Sheffield United or Leeds United away from home next.
Read on as Bridge-Wilkinson speaks to Liverpoolfc.com about the mood in the camp, how proud he was of the performance in the last round against Arsenal, and more…
You have to accept cookies in order to view this content on our site.
Watch on YouTubeOn his thoughts ahead of Sunday’s Youth Cup tie…
Hopefully it’s going to be a really good game and players, staff, everyone in the Academy is looking forward to it so hopefully we can play well, perform and get the result.
On the quality of his side’s display in their 7-1 win over Arsenal…
It was really pleasing and really positive and I think to a man all of the lads were really good. I don’t think we had anybody that was under par on the evening, so it was a really nice team performance with lots of nice individual displays in there that were eye-catching as well. So, it was a really positive evening but this is a different game, it’s a different challenge and we’ve got to try to recreate and replicate the performance that we put in against Arsenal.
On the quality of Danns, Koumas and Kone-Doherty in attack…
They are exciting. We know that we’ve got boys at the top end of the pitch that can score goals and create goals, we know we have a threat in that area of the pitch so we are hoping that we can use it. I also thought we defended really well on the evening as well against Arsenal and the build-up play that we try to do, the boys did really well, so it wasn’t just about the front end of the pitch and everyone else did well and I thought it was a great team performance.
On Danns hitting 20 goals so far and where he is in his development…
Jayden is doing really well. He obviously still has a lot to do, like they all have at this age, but I think people are now starting to see that Jayden is able to showcase himself in a lot more moments during the games. His consistency and his performances and individual parts of his game are really good. Rightly so he has been given the opportunity with the U21s and he seems to have taken that opportunity so far. He’s doing really well, he’s improving all the time and his attitude and his character is phenomenal, it’s brilliant, and hopefully he can keep going and improving and the world is his oyster.
On captain Josh Davidson’s leadership and his outstanding display against Arsenal…
Davo played really well. He played that role on the right side really well and I think he’s a bright footballer, he’s intelligent and he can play inside the pitch, can play outside the pitch, he can drop down and step up. Davo can be really proud of his performance because we certainly were.
On the test posed by Fulham…
Fulham have a really good academy and they are a good side. It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be difficult, so we have to make sure we turn up with the right frame of mind, the right attitude and make sure we try to implement our version of our game onto them.
When we lost 5-3 to Fulham [in the U18 Premier League Cup in October] we made one or two mistakes defensively so we will need to be much better than we were that day. They are a good side with good players and they are well coached. We’ve got to make sure that both in the attacking and defensive side of our game that we are switched on, we all do our individual roles and as a collective we work hard for each other and we do everything that we need to do to make sure we make it harder for Fulham and easier for us.
On whether playing at home is a big advantage…
Ultimately we are fortunate to have a home draw as we are used to playing on our main pitch, but whether that means anything in a one-off game, who knows? We are certainly going to try to use our home advantage, that’s for sure.