Source: Daily_Mail
Everton kids rule! Area where Toffees are undisputed kings of Merseyside
Having suffered two Barclays Premier League defeats and seen plans for a new stadium hit the buffers, it has been a bad news week for Everton. [LNB]There is, however, one league table that will hearten Evertonians ahead of tomorrow's Goodison Park derby with Liverpool. As youth academy head Ray Hall explained: 'So far this season, Manchester United have had, on average, six products of their youth system in their first team squad on match day. [LNB]'They are top of that little league. We are next with five per game. We aim for at least four per match so we are doing OK.'[LNB] Young gun: Dan Gosling hails his FA Cup winner against Liverpool last season[LNB] Hall, on the Everton staff now for 19 years, was too polite to reveal where Liverpool stand in the table. Other clubs, he reasons, are not his business. But it would not be too hard to hazard a guess. [LNB]While boss David Moyes's weekly Premier League first-team roster features the likes of Leon Osman, Tony Hibbert, Jack Rodwell and Dan Gosling, Liverpool rely heavily on stalwarts Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard when it comes to injecting a streak of home-sourced talent into Rafael Benitez's eclectic squad. [LNB]As Liverpool's Spanish manager has struggled to move the club forward this season, the apparent lack of players from the club's youth academy has been used as another stick to beat him with. [LNB]Midfielder Jay Spearing, defender Martin Kelly and forward Nathan Ecclestone have appeared on the Premier League radar, but their appearances have been fleeting. [LNB] Enlarge Benitez has, it must be said, only just completed a radical overhaul of a youth set-up he inherited and which he believed to be failing. [LNB]Seventeen staff departed in the summer and he now has his own - such as former chief scout Frank McParland and highly-rated ex-Barcelona man Jose Segura - at the helm. It is too early to expect results, but one senses they must come quickly. [LNB]At one stage last season, Liverpool were said to have 62 professional players on their books, something that drew criticism from UEFA general secretary David Taylor. [LNB]'Training would be interesting with all these players running around looking for 11 jerseys,' he said. 'It's ridiculous.' [LNB] Goodison grown: Wayne Rooney in action during his Everton days[LNB]There have also been harsh words from former youth director Steve Heighway, who quit in 2007 after failing to get on with Benitez or his predecessor Gerard Houllier, and some members of the team that won the FA Youth Cup in 2006. [LNB]Midfielder Adam Hammill said: 'At 18, you'd be naive to think you're going to break into Liverpool's first team. You'd have to be a Gerrard, Owen or Rooney.' [LNB]Criticism from those who haven't made the grade must be placed in context. Hammill, for example, is now employed by Barnsley, which suggests he wasn't good enough. [LNB]And why shouldn't Liverpool expect players to be as talented as 'Gerrard, Owen or Rooney' in order to reach their first team? Young players do not, after all, have a divine right to play in Benitez's side just because they were born within sight of the River Mersey. [LNB]Stalwart: Liverpool's Jamie Carragher[LNB]Nevertheless, one thing that does appear to have set Everton apart from their neighbours at Anfield in recent years is the relationship and interaction between the first team set-up and the academy. [LNB]At Liverpool it has been strained during the Benitez years, something he is now trying to put right. [LNB]At Everton's Finch Farm training centre, unity and a sense of direction and purpose have been easier to find. Hall added: 'Our objective is to support the club and support the first team manager in his annual quest to bring European football to Everton. [LNB]'We aim to see one youth product make his debut for the first team each season and have achieved that for the last 10 years. There have been 29 in that time. [LNB]'Being on the same site is mutually beneficial. We are not in each other's pockets, but there is sharing of ideas and players between the different levels of coaching staff. All our systems - technical, tactical, educational and medical - are aligned. [LNB]'Nobody here has ever told me I have to win the FA Youth Cup. Our role is about developing elite players for the first team.' [LNB]The issue of winning youth honours is a delicate one in coaching circles. After all, what use is silverware if the players who win it don't make the grade at senior level?[LNB] Liverpool, for example, have been in three of the last four finals but precious few players - the likes of Spearing and Ecclestone excepted - have proved good enough for Benitez. [LNB]At Everton, the route to the first team is easier. It always will be at clubs where transfer funds are more limited. But Everton are clearly doing something right. Liverpool will hope their new setup will reap similar dividends. The sooner the better.[LNB] We'll prove we are a great team, vows Rafa Benitez as Liverpool boss fights to save his future EVERTON v Liverpool: Marouane Fellaini and Diniyar Biyaletdinov back to boost the midfield for derbyEverton v LIVERPOOL: Rafa Benitez sweats over Fernando Torres' fitness ahead of derbyLIVERPOOL FC
