Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Liverpool Excited By Future Asian Prospects

Frank McParland thinks it will be very soon that an Asian star becomes one of the key players at Liverpool.

The Academy Director saw Liverpool’s U18 side take part in the NextLions Cup in Singapore and witnessed how Asian football is ever-improving.

“I was impressed by both the skill and the physical presence of the Singapore team,” McParland told Liverpool’s official club website.

“Every time I come to Asia, I’m more and more impressed with the standard of football I see – particularly from the younger age groups.

“We’re always looking at players when we play. We always look at the opposition and if someone does really well, you can be sure they’ll be scouted properly.

“I’m sure it won’t be long before we have an Asian star at Liverpool.

“It’s just great to have top players from anywhere in the world, whether it’s Australia, Asia, America or Allerton. We just want the very best players for Liverpool Football Club, so it’s important that we don’t just look in Allerton, we look in places like Asia as well.”

Liverpool’s new reserve team manager Alex Inglethorpe echoed McParland’s thoughts as he took a one-hour training session for the Singapore national academy and admired the talent on show first-hand.

“They played with such natural ability, it was very impressive,” he said. “They had a freedom to how they played and that probably comes from the fact that they are street footballers. They haven’t had that natural flair coached out of them.

“Some of the things they were trying were outrageous but they had the courage to try those things and sometimes they came off. It was a real joy to spend an hour with them and they were incredibly hungry to try the drills and tasks I was putting to them. I hope they got something out of the session because I know I did.”

No comments: