Borrell: Bring on Chelsea
Rodolfo Borrell has set his sights on a first Barclays Premier Reserve League North victory of the season as his Liverpool youngsters prepare to host big-spending Chelsea on Wednesday afternoon.
The Reds' second-string have played just two domestic games so far this term due to their involvement in the NextGen Series tournament.
The Spaniard's fledgling team have come out of both contests empty-handed but he remains confident that facing such a high standard of opposition will eventually pay big dividends for the club's future.
Borrell told Liverpoolfc.tv: "Everyone knows that Chelsea have spent massive money on youngsters over the past few years. That means they are able to bring through players who are competitive but also of a high quality.
"They have used some big name players in their reserves already this season and last week Romelu Lukaku was involved.
"So we know they are a good side and it will be a very good experience for our young team. I think it will be a good contest and we are looking forward to it."
He continued: "It's important to get our first league win. I have always said that winning is important and helps with the development too.
"This season is more of a learning curve for us though, and similar to my first one here where we had young players facing older, more physical opponents.
"They say that if you are good enough, you are old enough - but this is when you have youngsters who are surrounded by players with experience. We do not have that experience in our squad and playing against older sides is really difficult over 90 minutes.
"Each week we must look to progress that little bit more and build on what we are learning. We have belief in our youngsters and know they will develop over the course of this season."
Chelsea aside, Borrell's U19 side remain in the hunt for qualification to the knockout stage of the NextGen Series following Wolfsburg's goalless draw with Group 2 leaders Sporting Lisbon last week.
The tournament has provided Liverpool with a very different challenge to that posed by the domestic league and the former Barcelona man is convinced his charges will benefit from both competitions.
Borrell said: "The difference is very big between the NextGen Series and the domestic league. In Europe you are getting international experience and facing other mentalities but you are also playing against sides of a similar age.
"In the English league we play with an U19 team against some teams who have players who are up to 30-years-old.
"This is how it is in our country and I think there are positives of playing in both competitions for us."
He added: "I think our season has been tough so far, like I predicted in pre-season. It would have been easy to play weaker sides in pre-season and get some wins, but it would not have been the reality when it all started competitively.
"I wanted to have a tough calendar of fixtures right from the very start and I expect that to be the same right the way through the campaign.
"We might struggle in terms of results early on but slowly and surely we will overcome this."