U21s preview'This is a great test for us, let's be the best version of ourselves'
Barry Lewtas believes tonight's Bristol Street Motors Trophy last-32 tie with Bradford City provides the perfect opportunity for his Liverpool U21s side to showcase their potential.
The young Reds have reached the knockout stages of the competition for the first time and now face the League Two outfit at the University of Bradford Stadium, with kick-off set for 7.30pm GMT.
In the group stage, a 3-0 win over Morecambe set Lewtas’ charges on their way to qualification, and despite a loss to Blackpool and a narrow defeat at Barrow, it was enough to reach the final 32.
Bradford, who recently appointed Graham Alexander as their new manager after the departure of Mark Hughes, are currently 14th in League Two and won all of their group games in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.
“There is huge levels of excitement and it’s another opportunity for us to showcase what we’ve done so far in the competition, because I think we’ve done really well,” U21s head coach Lewtas told Liverpoolfc.com.
“First and foremost, it’s really exciting playing at that stadium and hopefully we get a few supporters in and it’s something we are really looking forward to.
“Bradford City are a good team. They changed their manager recently so we’ve got a good idea what problems they could cause us, but we have played in plenty of these games now so we are well aware of the kind of problems league teams can offer us.
“The one thing definitely this season we’ve been able to do is cause teams problems ourselves, so that is the main real focus for us, to try to make sure we are the best version of ourselves and cope with the demands of the game, which I think we’ve managed to do so far in this competition.”
Belief is such a big thing for young players and Lewtas feels that despite playing a number of U18s so far in the competition, this will benefit them hugely going forward.
“The last three group games have given us some confidence,” he added.
“Getting that win at Morecambe really helped and it was a bit of a monkey off our back, if I’m being fair. We then played against a really good Blackpool team, but I still felt we played our part in the game and showed we can compete, apart from the last 15 minutes when we probably ran out of gas.
“This is an opportunity for our players to show where they are in their journey. For some of the boys it’s also a real learning opportunity for them to show them what it’s like playing against senior players at a first-team stadium.
“It gives these boys something that we are not kind of used to week in, week out. For a lot of these boys that could possibly be where their step will be with regards to loan moves but overall this experience is a real positive one for us.
"But at the same time we are not just turning up for the experience and we are turning up to try to win a game.
“We are very aware that for us to win games in this competition we’ve got to make sure that we are at our very best and that is going to be the challenge.”
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