'Our squad is talented - we know we'll create chances and score goals'
Marc Bridge-Wilkinson has highlighted the quality and mentality that shone through as Liverpool U18s beat Sutton United 6-0 in the FA Youth Cup.
The young Reds set up a fourth-round clash with Manchester United thanks to Tyler Morton's opener, a double by Mateusz Musialowski and Ethan Ennis' hatt-trick from the bench.
Read on for Bridge-Wilkinson's thoughts...
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On performance against Sutton…
I was really pleased. It was a tough game. Their set-up and the way they came and played made it difficult for us but the boys adapted, understood the challenge that was ahead of them and I thought they coped and dealt with the situation really well. We’ve got lots of good players in the team and obviously there was also a lot of good players who weren’t in the team as well. We know we can score goals and we know we will create chances. We got the first one and then we were patient, kept building the game and kept working them and tiring them out a little bit, and then we got our rewards.
On Musialowski netting twice after his wonder goal against Newcastle United…
Matty has had a good week. Matty can finish. He can finish off both feet and in different ways because he has a lot of variety to the way he can finish. We’ve been working hard with him and talking to him a lot about getting into the right areas. Although his second goal was a brilliant strike, although his goal at Newcastle was amazing, I’m so pleased about his first goal, because he’s arrived in the box from Tyler’s great cut-back. He’s arrived in the right area and taps it home. If he keeps getting into those areas he’s going to score more goals for us.
On Ennis coming off the bench to score a hat-trick…
Ethan is an U16 player and it was a great evening for him. It was his debut in the FA Youth Cup and he got three goals! What a wonderful achievement for him and he went on and did what I ask our subs to do: have an impact on the game. He arrived in great areas which forward players do and his finishing was really good.
On the relentless drive up and down the flanks from full-backs James Norris and Isaac Mabaya…
They were brilliant for us. Isaac is a midfield player really so he was filling in for us at right-back and he looks good there, to be honest. Chuck [Norris] was fantastic. From minute one and in particular the second half I thought he was dominant. His movement, the sheer purpose of his game in trying to play forward all the time, his crossing, his running off the ball - just a fantastic performance.
On a fourth-round tie away to United…
That will be a good game and they have got a good group of players, but we have as well. Let’s see what happens.