In this bonus episode of the podcast we take a closer look at Neil Critchley's time with Liverpool ahead of Blackpool's EFL Trophy game against the Reds' U21s.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to a bonus episode of the Football First podcast, head of Blackpool's
00:04 EFL Trophy game against Liverpool 121s at Bloomfield Road this week. I'm joined by
00:09 Rad reporter Neil Jones to look back on the career of Neil Critchley who held a number
00:14 of positions during his time at Liverpool. So first of all Neil how are you mate?
00:19 Yeah very well thanks how are you?
00:20 Yeah I'm good thank you. So before we get into Critchley is anyone in the Liverpool squad
00:26 Blackpool fans should look out for?
00:29 Yeah it's a difficult one because it comes in the international break doesn't it so obviously
00:33 there's a lot of players or a few players there that will probably be missing because they're
00:37 away with under 21s or under 19s or various age groups and Liverpool have got a lot of good
00:44 players I mean if it was their best on the 21 side it would be a really really interesting one
00:50 for Liverpool and for Blackpool fans to watch but most of the ones that you would say are you know
00:56 absolute sort of potential first teamers for Liverpool the likes of Ben Doak, Stefan Bajcicic,
01:02 even I mean he's still so young but even Harvey Elliott could play in this fixture they're already
01:07 sort of ingrained in the first team. Others people like Bobby Clark who is probably the best at the
01:13 moment remaining and Calum Scanlon, Mateusz Musialowski they'll probably be away with their
01:19 country so I think it will be a little bit more of a difficult task for Barry Lutis to put together
01:24 a side for this game that the scheduling sort of not worked out for them but there's always
01:30 there's always talent to watch when Liverpool are the 21s playing I'm sure they'll be competitive if
01:34 nothing else. Of course Neil Critchley's worked at Liverpool for many years, had a numerous amount
01:41 of roles, how was he thought about the club? Is he still held in high regard? Yeah absolutely yeah I
01:47 mean he was someone who you know you look at the sort of era of Alex Inglethorpe as academy
01:54 director at Liverpool and obviously that I think that spans 10 years now. Neil Critchley was a key
01:59 member of that you know and there's been a lot of a lot of people who've passed through that system
02:03 and gone on to do you know great things with other clubs and in management you know unfortunately we
02:09 just see Michael Beale lose his job at Rangers but he was one obviously Pep Linders is with the
02:14 Liverpool's first team, you've got Steve Cooper and obviously at Nottingham Forest as well, Mike
02:19 Marsh who's assistant manager to Ryan Lower, Preston, Stephen Gerrard of course you know the
02:27 biggest name of them all but Neil Critchley was one that was there throughout most of that period
02:31 and had a big role in the under 18s, the under 21s and the change that went in that time when it
02:40 went from the under 21s to under 23s I know it's since gone back and the sort of the decision to
02:47 go into the EFL trophy and in Critchley's case I think the biggest thing that he'd be remembered
02:55 for is that he took charge of a Liverpool first team in two games and albeit a very young Liverpool
03:01 first team and one that was born out of circumstance rather than anything else and the way that he
03:06 quitted himself there and obviously the performances that he was able to glean from those sides
03:13 I think that's where the sort of seeds were sown for him to go into his own managerial career and
03:18 now he's had two spells at Blackpool, he's had a very short-lived and I'm sure disappointing spell
03:23 with QPR and a spell of Stephen as assistant with Aston Villa but I think you have to say you know
03:30 you look at the last sort of few years of Neil Critchley's career and it's been one of upwards
03:34 trajectory. You mentioned the last couple of games he took charge, it was at Liverpool,
03:40 was that the Club World Cup? It was two different circumstances, so he managed the quarterfinal of
03:46 the Carabao Cup in December 2019, that was when Liverpool were in Qatar for the Club World Cup,
03:52 Liverpool's first team was in Qatar for the Club World Cup and so they split and sent an under-21
03:58 side pretty much to Villa Park and that finished 5-0 to Villa and then he took charge of another
04:03 game which was in the FA Cup against Shrewsbury, that was the following February I think,
04:07 2020 and that was due to Liverpool basically protesting against the amount of fixtures and
04:14 that the fact that a winter break had been brought in for FA Cup replayers were going to feature and
04:19 be played during that winter break so yeah and Claude made the decision that he wouldn't allow
04:23 any of his senior players to play in that game, they were going to have their winter break and so
04:28 again the 21s stepped in. How much do you think that kind of experience whetted his appetite for
04:35 Critchley to obviously make his own way in the management world? Yeah I think it was, I think,
04:40 you know, listen I couldn't say it was the reason he went into it but I think it definitely
04:44 accelerated the process. I remember being at Villa Park the night Liverpool played, they lost 5-0 to
04:50 an Aston Villa side that was pretty much, you know, it was a first team or a Premier League bench if
04:56 you want to call it that, you know, sort of that was how I described that Villa team that night
04:59 and Liverpool actually played really well but as you might expect from such a young side and as
05:03 we'll probably see a lot in the EFL trophy, you know, between the two penalty areas not much
05:09 difference, you know, they can play football, they can keep it, they've all got a good technique
05:12 in the two penalty areas, it was, you know, a golfing class between the experienced players
05:18 and the inexperienced players but I remember speaking to him that night, I was in the front
05:22 row of his press conference and he sort of said, you know, I don't want tonight to end really,
05:25 you know, he'd enjoyed it, he'd had Jürgen on the phone I think during the, before the game and
05:30 maybe at half time even just sort of giving some encouragement and, you know, just pointers,
05:36 I think he'd been encouraged by what he'd seen from some of his players and I think, yeah, it
05:41 wasn't long after the Shrewsbury game which was an even bigger success, that was at Anfield,
05:45 that was a full house and Liverpool won the game, they won 1-0, it wasn't long after that that
05:50 obviously he embarked upon his managerial career with Blackpool. You mentioned Jürgen Klopp,
05:57 what was Christie's relationship like with Liverpool, mind you? Yeah, I think obviously
06:02 at the time the academy and the first team training complex was split so they weren't,
06:07 they're now obviously on the same site in Kirby, they weren't during Neil Christie's time there
06:13 but obviously with him having that experience with the first team, I keep calling it the first
06:19 team, I mean it was pretty much his 21s in the guise of the first team but I think that was when
06:23 there was more dialogue between the two around that period than in the latter months of his
06:29 Liverpool career. But yeah, it was a bit more difficult in those days, it wasn't a case of
06:34 Jürgen being able to stroll down from his office and sort of walk across and watch the 21s train
06:39 or the 18s train, it was a sort of a short drive away and it wasn't always possible and Jürgen,
06:44 you know, made that point many times really that it was not ideal but that was the case,
06:49 he would have preferred it to have been all on one site, it is now and it's a lot more joined up
06:54 but yeah, it was a little bit more detached in those times so I think the academy and the first
07:03 team, although there was bridges between them with people like Pep Linders with Fito Matas who came
07:08 in later, there were bridges between them but it was still two sort of separate entities for most
07:15 of that time. And another big Liverpool name, Steven Gerrard, you mentioned him as well,
07:20 working with Matt Villar, obviously worked in the academy together, what was the relationship
07:24 like between them two? Yeah, they were obviously, I mean listen, Steven took him to Aston Villa,
07:28 that was one of his first things, he assembled the backroom staff and had a lot of people that he
07:32 knew, the likes of Tom Culshaw, Jordan Milson, Michael Bale, obviously Gary McAllister, you know,
07:37 with all the Liverpool connections and Neil Critchley was the guy that he chose to replace,
07:42 Michael Bale who obviously left and funny how things turned out in terms of Michael Bale went
07:47 to go and manage Queen's Park Rangers, Neil Critchley ends up managing Queen's Park Rangers
07:50 and there was clearly a respect for the work that he can do with developing players and with young
07:57 players in particular and you know, Neil's obviously brought up through the Cruelty Standard
08:02 way and the academy and you know, you'd expect someone who's been invested in that club and that
08:08 culture that you know, they would have excellent coaching skills with younger players, he's always
08:12 had a good reputation for that, I think he's always had a good reputation for his character as well,
08:16 that he's very level balanced, not someone who's overly emotional, I don't know if that's changed
08:23 the Blackpool, I haven't seen him on the touchline or his antics but he's not really someone who
08:28 you ever see too high or too low after a win or a defeat, that was sort of what stood out really a
08:34 little bit was when he managed the Liverpool's first team at Anfield and he sort of went down
08:39 to the Kop with his players and sort of was applauding and I remember saying to him after
08:43 that game in the press conference, I said to him 'oh you know, that's one of the few times I've
08:46 really seen you, you know, absolutely beaming and really sort of showing that side' and he said 'well
08:50 yeah, you know, it's a bit different when you've got the Kop saluting you and your players' but
08:56 yeah, I think he's always been known really and him and Stephen obviously worked together for a
09:01 brief period before obviously unfortunately Stephen lost his job and as a result Neil followed.
09:07 It was a sort of, our respect on a grass, coaching on the grass and sort of a sounding board that's
09:16 a very level-headed person and is not someone who's going to be, you know, like I say, ranting
09:20 and raving on the sideline or, you know, digging players out and things like that, he's got a very
09:25 good temperament in terms of his coaching style.
09:29 What impact did he set out at Liverpool to make him stand out as someone like amongst all those
09:34 names that you mentioned as well? Yeah, I mean look, he got, the circumstances dictated he got
09:39 to manage two games, very high profile, you know, quarter-final of the League Cup, a fourth-round
09:42 replay in the FA Cup, I think he was, you look at the players that he had to work with in that period
09:48 and I just, I can go through that team that played Shrewsbury in particular, you know,
09:53 Quivine Kelleher, Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones are all with the first team now with Liverpool,
09:57 Nico Williams is a Welsh international, played a few games for Liverpool, is playing in the Premier
10:02 League for Nottingham Forest, others are in the Football League, Sepp Vandenberg is in the Bundesliga,
10:08 you know, you've got Adam Lewis, Liam Miller, Keanu Hoover, Leighton Clarkson, Jay Kane,
10:13 it was a very talented group of players, but players who, maybe five, ten years ago, you
10:21 wouldn't be getting so many of those players to that kind of level, you'd be looking at more
10:25 League Two conference, maybe players falling out of the game, Neil Critchley, Barry Lutis, the other
10:31 guys at the academy, obviously Alex Inglethorpe overseeing it all, they were starting to create
10:36 players that were, one, becoming professionals, you know, and at a good level, they might not be
10:42 good enough for Liverpool, although some of them were, two, they were making the club money when
10:48 they were being sold, Nico Williams is a great example of that in particular, you know, we've got
10:52 I think 18 million pounds they made, but you also look at the type of players that they were
10:57 producing, they were players that were good enough to train regularly with Liverpool's first team,
11:02 and in some cases to play, Trent Alexander-Arnold would be a good example of that, obviously,
11:07 Neil Critchley played a part in his development from midfielder to a full-back, you know, he had
11:13 him, I think he was under 18, under 16 sort of level, you know, Curtis Jones in particular,
11:20 now a player that was a very sort of flamboyant, kind of flashy, if you like, a little bit of a
11:26 luxury player played in the attack, now you look at what he's developed into, and Neil Critchley
11:31 played a big part in that, in terms of not necessarily teaching them the game, but sort of
11:38 reinforcing messages that, look, you've got to work off the ball, you've got to do this,
11:42 you've got to be in these kind of positions, you've got to learn this position, and so yeah,
11:46 I think the sort of the legacy that he leaves behind is sort of, you know, obviously those
11:51 great nights that he had managing a Liverpool 11 at first team level, but more so the sort of
12:00 impact that he had on individual players, and the fact that Liverpool now produces players from the
12:04 academy that are maybe not ready to play hundreds and hundreds of games for the first team, but if
12:09 they're needed, they look like they can play in Liverpool's first team, or they can train with
12:12 Liverpool's first team, that the style is sort of uniform across the board.
12:17 And just finally, obviously from the outside, what have you made of Critchley's time in senior
12:23 football? Of course, impressive first spell with Blackpool, didn't work out at QPR, but he's
12:28 obviously back now, and yeah, have you seen the signs that he showed at Liverpool in terms of how
12:32 he was about his business? Yeah, I mean, I have to say I'd missed, oh sorry, the QPR sort of spell
12:40 really, it was very brief and you couldn't really make, I don't think you make too many judgments,
12:44 that club looks like a very difficult one for managers to go into and make a huge effort,
12:49 obviously, and Gareth Ainsworth obviously has had his own problems there since coming in.
12:53 And the second spell of Blackpool is obviously very new, and I'm waiting with interest to see
12:58 how that pans out, but I think his first spell, obviously the difficulty of it coming in the
13:03 COVID time, and you know, I remember speaking to him, and you know, during the lockdown really,
13:08 about how difficult it was that you're trying to settle into this, not just a new club, but an
13:14 entirely new career for him, you know, at first team management level, and then obviously so much
13:18 changes in the world and it becomes really difficult, but I remember the sort of, the mood
13:24 and when he won the playoff final and you know, the kind of, the huge achievement that he felt
13:29 that he'd made in getting the side up, and then to consolidate as well, you know, in the division
13:36 above, he was competitive as well when Blackpool went up, so I think he's done well in terms of his
13:43 senior management career. You'd know better than me, I couldn't sort of point at, you know,
13:49 huge, huge sort of individual players that he's developed, but I know Gerry Yates obviously was
13:55 one that he spoke very highly of, and I know he's now, he's moved on and you know,
13:59 scoring goals in the championship and doing well. I know he had some misfortune really, didn't he,
14:06 with a few lone players that he got in, I think Rhys Williams might have been one that he was
14:10 trying to sign. Ben Woodburn as well, it was Ben Woodburn, he had and didn't quite work out for him,
14:18 but I think generally, you know, he's got more credit in the bank than he has anything else,
14:22 and I think the QPR spell doesn't sort of, I don't think that should be held against him too
14:28 much. I think that was a very difficult job that he maybe, you know, didn't get a great deal of
14:32 time and support in. Hopefully now, back on familiar soil and back in familiar territory,
14:38 he can, you know, he can continue to do what he did in his first spell.
14:40 Well, thanks for joining me, Neil. Hopefully it'll be a good game on Tuesday night,
14:46 and good luck with the rest of the season yourself.
14:48 Yeah, no problem, mate. Just to warn you, Liverpool won the first game of this EFL
14:53 Trophy. They've had 13 goals winning a game in it, and they beat Morecambe obviously in the
14:57 first game, so yeah, they're on a bit of a roll now in the EFL Trophy, so Blackwell better be
15:02 aware even if it is a weekend side. Yeah, it's the go-to competition,
15:05 I'm sure it's what everyone at Liverpool's looking to now.
15:08 Absolutely.