Liverpool U21 Coach | Michael Beale
West Bromwich Albion coach Aaron Danks recently visited Aberdeen to pass on advice to more than 60 local coaches. Danks, who coaches the English Premier League side's Under-18s team, was invited to Aberdeen as part of a scheme organised by the AFC Community Trust and the SFA (north region) to help boost the standards of coaching at all levels of football in the area. Managers and coaches from Highland League, amateur, junior and school teams joined AFC's community coaching staff at a special session with Danks at Aberdeen Sports Village.
Following on from the success of that venture, the latest person to take part in the initiative was Liverpool U21 coach Michael Beale.
Michael Beale manages Liverpool's U21s team and is based at the club's Academy in Kirkby. He joined the Academy in September 2012 as youth development lead coach for the U15 and U16 age groups and his role was primarily to manage the U16s. He took charge of the U21s in 2014. Prior to joining the club, Michael spent 10 years at Chelsea, working full-time as youth development officer and U14 coach. His professional career included a spell at Charlton Athletic and he has subsequently acquired a UEFA A licence.
Before taking a session at the Sports Village, Michaal spoke to RedTV and explained that his visit had a dual purpose. To watch the interview in full please click here
“I am the Liverpool U21 coach, that is my daily task, to manage and oversee that team. There are around 24 players with six or seven staff, so it is a fantastic job I have there.
“Mark Slater at the SFA has invited me up a number of times now but my schedule has unfortunately never allowed it, but this time it has worked well because of Danny Ward and Ryan McLaughlin being at Aberdeen on loan. It’s become a visit with two motives, a chance to share some ideas with like-minded coaches and also a chance to catch up with Danny and Ryan and see how the boys are progressing.
“It was nice for me to sneak two days away from a very busy schedule and be able to come to Aberdeen. I was very impressed with the standard of the youth players who took part in the session. I was also impressed with the way the Youth Academy is run.
“I was able to speak with both Danny and Ryan too and they both seem very happy and have settled in very well. The boys are here to really start their journeys as professional players, so it’s good for me to see them in this environment.
“Danny and Ryan are both young men. They are trying to find their way in the game and we believe they have to go and play games against senior players before you can actually judge whether they will be a top level professional or maybe play a tier below.
“I believe both players will play at a very good level. Both are in their full national team squads which is a huge achievement at their age. We are seeing more of Danny at the moment because he came here at the start of the season, he has settled and has had some really big performances. I know Derek is very happy with how he is doing.
“Ryan has had a couple of injuries which have interrupted things for him. He is a player of huge promise who has already been away with our first team as an 18 year old year and had done very well. He has had one spell on loan at Barnsley in the Championship and this is his second loan spell. I think the most important thing for Ryan is for him to stay fit. If he does that, then we will see the best of him.
“Both boys have massive seasons ahead as both will want to go to the European Championships with their national teams. Although Liverpool U21s are a great side, we cannot give them the experience of playing in front of a large paying crowd, playing in front of fans who are desperate for their team to win.
“We are trying to push them down the road to being a professional football player. We have one boy playing in the Liverpool first team, Danny Rossiter, but that is not going to be the case for all of them.
“We have 14 players out on loan. We have one boy in Switzerland, we have another over in Finland at the moment, the two boys here, some at Swindon, one at Blackpool, Coventry, Brentford, Wolves, so they are out there playing and it is exciting. Whilst you might have to take the hit as a coach as you don’t have your best players on the training pitch every day, you get a huge amount of enjoyment on a Saturday when you see them playing and see them scoring or making saves in Danny’s case.
“The size of Aberdeen compared with other English clubs that our players could go out on loan to is not comparable. Aberdeen are a big club playing in a top division. You have some outstanding games and at the moment, you have the pressure of being at the top of the league. For me personally, that is far greater pressure than any loan in League One in England for example.
“The one tricky aspect for our young players is that they are not available to go on a youth loan. So once they go to Scotland, they are locked in for the six month period. That is fine for the likes of Danny and Ryan, but if a player was to go to club and not get regular minutes, he would not be able to pop back and play in the Liverpool U21 fixtures, which they would be able to do in England.
“But this season has opened our eyes to what experience the boys can have in the SPFL and I would like to think one or two more boys will make the move north in the coming seasons.
“Derek McInnes is an up and coming manager who people speak very well of. The two boys here speak very highly of him, he is very impressive. I know he watched our U21 games to see Danny play but he still took a gamble by playing Danny. There are a lot of managers who under pressure but there are still mangers who will go with youth. We are trying to identify who those people are. Derek would definitely be one of them and that fits in line with what we are looking for.”
