Liverpool Under 21 Manager Rob Page On Trent Kone Doherty Exit, Arne Slot Relationship & More | OneFootball

Liverpool Under 21s have enjoyed a stellar opening two months to 2026 and are currently on a nine-game unbeaten run as a group, with only a UEFA Youth League defeat for the Under 19s blotting Rob Page’s copybook since the turn of the year. 

That record is made all the more impressive considering the former Wales national team boss has been forced to rotate heavily and has recently been without key marksman Keyrol Figueroa, as well as captain Amara Nallo, who has served a three-game suspension for a red card against Southampton. 

Inspired by the goalscoring exploits of stand-in skipper Kieran Morrison, the young Reds now sit in fourth position in Premier League 2 with three regular fixtures left before the playoffs.

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Speaking after his side’s latest win, a 4-2 triumph over Tottenham Hotspur at the AXA Academy, Page was understandably pleased with how things were going…

On the performance and the result: “The result I’m really, really pleased with. There’s always going to be things that you want to work on and improve on from a performance point of view. We knew they were going to be a very good footballing team, so firstly we had to match that. (0:23) But what’s won us games in the last, well, certainly in this year, is now we’ve got an identity where we’re hard to play against and hard to beat. (0:34) We do the not-so-pretty side of the game really well. And then, like we said to them, there are a couple of good players in the changing room, and then when the game gets into a rhythm, we play. There were aspects of it today that we were a little bit disappointed with. As I said, they were a good team, so when we tweaked the press slightly, sometimes, when you play against teams like that, if you go ultra-aggressive in the press, it triggers their patterns. And I thought we helped that a little bit in the first half and made a little tweak to it at half-time, and I thought we were better from the change.”

How pleased were you with the fight back and the comeback going and conceding that early goal? “I never questioned their attitude, absolutely not. So, where they come from behind and, yes, great attitude and some of the work rate, the effort, the tackles they were winning. As I said, that’s our foundation. That’s what we build a team on.”

How pleased were you with Prince Cisse’s debut? “He’s still a young lad. He’s not been playing centre-back for that long. We see potential in him, so it’s been an opportunity to expose him to under-21s football. And he’s given a great account of himself and is getting a goal to boot as well. So, a bright future is in front of him if he keeps working hard. He’s a great lad. He’s willing to learn. He’s a great listener. It’ll be the right time again to discuss when to bring him back up. That’s done him the world of good, exposing him to that today.”

On nine unbeaten: “The pre-match meeting was about that part of it. Towards the back end of the meeting, we showed him the table. We showed the three points that we’re ahead of them. They’ve got two games in hand, so today was a big game with regard to that. The message before the game again was, think back to the feeling of winning the game. They want to come here and take that feeling away from us. We’re not going to just lie down and let teams come and do that. That’s been the biggest change for us. It’s that mentality change. Teams know now that when they come here, they’re in for a dogfight to start with. Then they’ll have to play against us as well. The lads love winning football matches. You can see that when they go on to the pitch.”

On Will Wright: “I played centre-half most of my career, and I wouldn’t want to play against Will. He works his socks off. He never gives up. His physicality is exceptional. There are aspects of his game we’ve got to work on, of course, but he’s been brought in to develop. It’s all part of the process for him. When you’ve got a foundation of work rate, effort and physicality, that gives you a great chance to get on in the game. He’s a big part of the team.”

On the dialogue with Arne Slot: “Yeah, we’ve got a great relationship. And Luiz (Fernando lubel) has come in as well, and he’s now that link between the first team and 21. There are conversations daily about where we forecast the players might be able to get minutes. So, communication’s great, and we’re happy to accommodate.”

On the departure of Trent Kone Doherty: “Somebody leaves for whatever reason, then it’s an opportunity for somebody else to grab the jersey. It was Bradshaw’s opportunity today. I thought he’d give a great account of himself and run himself into the ground. That’s why we made the change later. When you see somebody leave, it gives you an opportunity, then to go, all right, okay, it’s my pathway. Whether it’s to play in the first team, or go and make a career for myself and grab the jersey. Yeah, we’ve lost a good player, but as I said, in this job, you’re in it to develop players. He’s decided to move on. We wanted to keep him. There was an offer of a contract. So, disappointed to see him go, but that’s life. That’s development football. It gives others an opportunity now to step into his place, and we can focus on them.”

On Lewis Koumas: “He’s a great lad. I had a pre-season with him, and he’s great to work with. He’s got a great attitude. You want to pull the reins on him to stop him pressing, which is great, isn’t it? You’re trying to get players to encourage them to press high and aggressively, but it’s quite the opposite with him. I’ve seen a couple of his goals that he’s scored. He’s always off the last man, playing off the shoulder. He likes that physicality. Sometimes it’s a tackle as he’s finishing, so he’s great one-on-one. It’s great to see him in that form. Great support staff at Hull. I know Dean Holden quite well, who’s the assistant there, so he’ll give him all the support he needs. Great for our football club to have young players going out and playing really well and helping us develop them. And great for Welsh football, obviously, because we’ve got the play-offs coming up and two big games in March and Craig (Bellamy) will no doubt want all his young players playing well at a decent level, and he falls into that category.”

Injury update: “Danns is looking good. Back in training next week. So, that’s good for him. And Mor, the big centre-back we’ve signed as well, he’s back in training next week. So, he should feature before the end of the season, which is quite exciting. We signed him, and then we found a little problem, so we’ve had to put him off for six weeks or so. So, he’ll be with us for the first couple of weeks, and then see how he goes.”