Liverpool under-21s head coach Rob Page has criticised the scheduling of the EFL Trophy fixture that saw his team lose 4-0 to League One leaders Huddersfield Town on Tuesday evening, a result that ended their campaign on a disappointing note.
The young Reds finished third in Group H after the defeat, having been unable to field a full-strength side. Several key players were missing due to international commitments, including top scorer Will Wright, who received a first call-up from England U19s, defender Prince Cisse, who was with Wales U19s, and attacking midfielder Erik Farkas, part of the England U18s set-up.
Page questions international window fixture
Liverpool's previous two EFL Trophy matches this season, a penalty shoot-out win at Rochdale and a narrow loss to Doncaster Rovers, were also arranged during the extended international break earlier in the campaign.
Page said: "It's like we are fighting with one arm tied behind our back. I understand the principle of playing in this competition. We want to expose our lads to league opposition, but give us our best players."
He added: "We have a couple of players on international duty who could have helped the team. Putting the game in the international window doesn't make sense to me. It's so frustrating. And that's why I'll never have a go at the lads who played, some of those Huddersfield players have been playing league football for years, they had one of the top scorers in League One playing. We're being asked to go out and have a level fight, but it's not even."
Ruthless Huddersfield prove decisive
Liverpool knew before the match that they could not qualify for the knockout stages and would finish third in the four-team group, with Huddersfield topping it. The hosts took the lead after 43 seconds through Joe Taylor, League One's second-top scorer, and were 3-0 up by the interval. Liverpool improved after the break and came close to scoring through Josh Sonni-Lambie and Luke Chambers.
Page reflected on the performance: "I thought there were a lot of positives from the game. We were playing a team who are top of League One and had their strongest team they could play."
He continued: "I said to the players if they want to progress through and play league football, they have to have that ruthless mentality. The first 10 minutes are like a game of chess, and if we are going to hand them a goal inside 40 seconds like we did then it's going to make the game even harder."
Page noted that Huddersfield had about three opportunities in the first half and scored three goals, adding: "That's the ruthless mentality I keep drilling into the lads. They have to learn from it. They have to learn from being exposed to that ruthless mentality."
Learning experience and friendlies planned
Page acknowledged the defeat was part of the competition's purpose: "The last third let us down a bit in the first half, second half we changed things slightly and I thought we took control of it. But they get an opportunity, ruthless, goal. It's great learnings for the players and that's why we are in this competition. We want them to expose them to players like that at the top of League One."
He added: "The manner of the defeat I will accept because our work-rate was incredible. We need to be a bit more streetwise and that will make us better as a team and individuals. We just got beaten by a better team, and that's okay."
Full-back Clae Ewing came off the bench in the second half for his first outing since April. With only two scheduled Premier League 2 fixtures in the coming two months, Page is keen to arrange more matches. He said: "We need friendlies because people like Clae need to build on the minutes he has just got, some of the squad players need to get minutes. We have the UEFA Youth League games where 18s and 21s play, we have Paris FC coming up in December as well in a friendly, but we will need to arrange a couple more friendlies to keep the momentum."
