Sterling, Shelvey, Suso & Wisdom
When Brendan Rodgers came in to Liverpool, he started off with experience but very quickly promoted 4 youngsters to the first team for alot of games before Christmas. Since then, Liverpool have added Daniel Sturridge and Phillipe Coutinho to the squad whilst Lucas Leiva came back from injury in December and Stewart Downing has started to put in the performances that would be expected from a 28 year old international player.
Here is a look at how Brendan Rodgers has used Raheem Sterling, Jonjo Shelvey, Jesús Joaquín Fernández Sáez de la Torre and Andre Wisdom.
Sterling (18yrs old) has started 16 of the first 17 games and figured in 22 of our first 23 games up to Norwich at home on 19-Jan-13. He was on the pitch for 1,563 mins up to 31-Dec-12 but for only 171 mins in 2013. To put it into context, Sterling has had more playing time than Jose Enrique, Stewart Downing, Lucas Leiva and Jordan Henderson.Sterling has scored 2 goals and has 6 assists - one of the best being his pass to Cole for the goal at West Ham. Only Gerrard & Suarez have more assists in the league than Sterling.
Shelvey's (21yrs old) figured on the pitch on 15 occassions in the first 19 games (up to and including Stoke away). However he has only figured in 1 match in the next 10 when he started against WBA at home. Up to 31-Dec-12 he chalked up 771 mins on the pitch but only 56 mins in 2013. Whilst Shelvey has scored in other competitions, he has only scored 1 goal in the league with no assists.
Suso (19yrs old) has figured on the pitch in 12 of the first 21 games up until Sunderland at home on 02-Jan-13. Since then he only made the bench twice but never got on the pitch. Up until year end, he ran up 553 mins but only 24 mins since then. Suso scored no goals and has no assists.
Wisdom (19yrs old) has had a stop-start season. He was not in the squad for the first 5 games but then started the next 7 between Norwich away and Wigan at home. He then didn't figure in the next 8 games. He came back in for 4 games in January (Sunderland, Utd, Norwich & Arsenal) and since then hasn't figured in the last 6 matches. In the 11 games he has played, Liverpool conceded 10 goals and kept 5 clean sheets. His playing time has been split relatively evenly between 2012 (414 mins) and 2013 (360 mins).
Up to the end of the year, we were hit and miss with a record of W7 D7 L6 and were 8 pts behind the Champions League spots. In very simple terms, its an average of 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat in every 3 games which is....well, average! In these 20 games, the youngsters played a total of 3,241mins
Since the start of the year Liverpool have played 10 games and largely generated the same amount of points as the teams vying for the Champions League spots. Considering those 10 games included away games to Man Utd, Arsenal and Man City with a home game against Spurs, its a decent form. The 2 disappointing moments were the Southampton and WBA defeats. We still averaged a disappointing 1 defeat in 3. In total, the 4 youngsters have only played 611 mins in these 10 games.
Conclusions
Its reasonable to conclude that the team has become more consistent since the start of the New Year which is partly due to the use of more experienced players with Lucas becoming available again, Sturridge making a big initial impact, Downing continuing to improve and also Henderson getting more minutes in the team as the season has come along. In fact, Henderson has only completed 90mins twice in the league which were back-to-back games away to Arsenal when he scored and then away to Man City.
However, it was always likely to be the case that the team would more inconsistent at the start of the season (irrespective of the players being used) as the players get used to the new manager's methods. In addition, the contributions of Sterling in the early part of the season were some of the few bright spots whilst Shelvey made a big contribution to the Europa League campaign. Even with his inexperience, Wisdom has shown himself to be an able deputy at right back and even played in a back 3 in the 1st half at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season. As for Suso, whilst he has talent, it is probable that he will be loaned out next season with Rodgers recently quoted as saying:
Does he actually have to go and play somewhere for a year and get experience? Does he need to show he can go and get goals and create goals and then we know what we have?...............If the young players are good enough they will be involved in the squad, but I have to look at the individual plan to see if they can be here."
Hopefully next season the team will not need to rely so much on the younger and more inexperienced members of the squad. Certainly Sterling and Wisdom have shown that they can bring the required quality but need to be taken out of the team if they are not performing as well as would be hoped. After all, Emiliano Insua suffered greatly from being overplayed in the 2009/10 season as a 20yr old during periods of poor individual form as Aurelio was invariably injured and Dossena moved back to Italy in January 2010.
All in all, despite some positive performances from the aforementioned younger players, the senior team has benefitted from more senior players playing in the team and other players stepping up their performances after being questioned by the manager.