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If Arne Slot and Liverpool delivered a Champions League masterclass to Real Madrid on Tuesday evening, it was the Reds' young guns who found themselves on the receiving end earlier in the day. A resounding defeat at home to the Spanish side in the UEFA Youth League highlighted a particular issue for one player.
An under-19 team led by Rob Page suffered a 4-0 loss to their Real Madrid counterparts during a humbling afternoon at the Academy in Kirkby, with the visitors leading by a goal at half-time before dominating the second half.
Trey Nyoni, the 18-year-old midfielder who is captaining Liverpool in the competition this season, was among several players who didn't perform up to their usual standard.
The youngster also struggled when making only his second senior appearance of the season in the previous week's 3-0 Carabao Cup defeat at home to Crystal Palace.
With Nyoni also having been an unused substitute five times for Slot's team, the young player finds himself in a situation similar to Rio Ngumoha, where his senior commitments mean he isn't getting as much game time as would be ideal for the academy.
Indeed, by playing all 360 minutes so far in the UEFA Youth League, he has more game time in that competition than any other combined this season at any club level.
The situation presents a challenging balancing act. "I think that's a fair assessment and Trey would probably agree with that," Page commented.
"He is in a difficult space right now, and it's about keeping him confident and managing his expectations of his involvement in the first team.
"But it is a difficult space for a young player. He is still a young lad, don't forget, and he's had involvement in the first team from an early age.
"Now it's about managing his minutes, giving him game time, but also maintaining the standards he has set as well. If you ask him, he's probably fallen a bit below that for whatever reason but we will get him back on track. He is a talented, talented footballer."
Real Madrid maintained its flawless start to the UEFA Youth League with a resounding win against a Liverpool side who, despite the loss, remain in a strong position to advance to the knockout stages.
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"We knew we were in for a tough game," Page admitted. "We said in the dressing room after the game, in development football when you play in competitions like this against teams like this, you have to take learnings from it.
"It's hard when you are bringing two teams together. We have two centre-backs who don't play together, it's tough when basically your three forwards are from the U21s and most of the rest are from the U18s and you get one day on the pitch to prepare.
"You could see in Real Madrid's team, they play together week in week out. You could see that in the relationships on the pitch and their reactions."
Page added: "Forget tactics and individual ability, what I said to the players at half-time is I thought Real were outrunning us a bit. That's about wanting to do the work. That was disappointing. Real looked a lot more physical.
"Real knew when to go down and get a free-kick and everybody needs to learn that part of the game. But it wasn't just about that - I thought Real's overall game was very, very good.
"We have seven points from four games. You want to win your home games and pick up points on the road, but we've been doing it the other way around. We'll dust ourselves down and learn from it."
Liverpool conclude the opening phase with a home game against PSV Eindhoven and a trip to face Inter Milan. The top 22 sides progress to the knockout stages, with the Reds currently sitting three points above the elimination zone.
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can read the original story in the Liverpool ECHO by clicking here.
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