U23s reaction: Critchley on 'outstanding' Glatzel and Lewis illness
Neil Critchley explained his delight for Paul Glatzel after the Liverpool forward netted his first goal at U23 level in the 1-0 win over West Ham United on Monday night.
The No.9, who turns 18 on Wednesday, slotted home from close range in the 77th minute after an excellent cross from Abdi Sharif.
The young Reds battled well in a physical Premier League 2 encounter as they got back to winning ways following six draws from their previous seven games.
Read on for Critchley’s thoughts on Glatzel’s winner, young players taking their opportunity, and the reason why Adam Lewis couldn’t continue in the second half…
On Glatzel getting off the mark at U23 level…
I’m made up for Paul and I thought he was outstanding all night. What we asked him and Glen [McAuley] to do for us up front, I thought they did it extremely well competing against two big, strong boys. They had to back in and fight, which is something they are not normally accustomed to doing but both of them did extremely well. I’m delighted for Paul to get his goal. It was a really good goal and it was something we had spoken about before the game, about midfield runners exploiting the space, which is what Abdi did. The other younger boys did so well as well. I thought Rhys Williams was outstanding at the back and there were some really good performances all round.
On his team digging deep to get the victory…
It was a hard-fought win. We knew we would face a physical test with lots of long balls, balls into the box and balls in behind us. We stood up to that really well and we had to play slightly differently when we had the ball as well. The pitch was quite lively and they make it really difficult for you with the way they press in numbers and make it tough for you to play through them, so we played a little bit longer than we would normally do. I thought there was nothing in it in the first half, although they slightly edged it. In the second half we were the team in the ascendancy and looked the most likely to score, and at the end a 1-0 scoreline on the balance of play was a fair result. We’ve become a hard team to beat, Shamal George had very little to do, especially in the second half.
On the reason for Lewis being substituted…
Adam was ill tonight. He was struggling all game and wasn’t his usual self so he had to come off, which was unfortunate.
On why player progression is more important at U23 level than the league table…
The performances and how the boys are developing is more important than where we are in the league. The big plus tonight for me were the performances of the younger boys and some of our more senior U23 players. Connor Randall is looking more like his old self with every game he plays. The league position is irrelevant really because we just want to make sure our boys are developing and following the process that we believe in - and I think some of them are.