{"id":291423,"date":"2025-11-30T13:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/291423\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T13:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:10:10","slug":"liverpool-trial-new-young-centre-back-in-2-0-friendly-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/291423\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Trial New Young Centre-Back In 2-0 Friendly Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool U21s continued their mid-season break from competitive fixtures with a 2-0 friendly win over Salford City on Saturday \u2013 while trialling a new young defender.<\/p>\n

Rob Page\u2019s U21s do not have another competitive game until January 9, instead arranging a number of behind-closed-doors friendlies to retain fitness and sharpness.<\/p>\n

On Saturday that saw a Salford City side make a visit to the AXA Training Centre, with a new trailist starting in defence.<\/p>\n

It is not yet known who the trialist is but he started alongside Amara Nallo at centre-back \u2013 with regular partner Wellity Lucky not present in a potential hint at first-team involvement.<\/p>\n

\"KIRKBY,<\/p>\n

Armin Pecsi<\/a> and Tommy Pilling were the only players to stay on for the full 90 minutes as Page used the opportunity to give his full squad a runout.<\/p>\n

There were goals either side of half-time with Keyrol Figueroa opening the scoring by poking home in a goalmouth scramble and Pilling heading in to seal a 2-0 victory just before the hour mark.<\/p>\n

17-year-old Haydn Murray-Holme steps up<\/p>\n

\"KIRKBY,<\/p>\n

One of those to come off the bench was 17-year-old midfielder Haydn Murray-Holme, who caught Page\u2019s eye on his debut for the U19s in a 1-0 win over PSV Eindhoven three days previous.<\/p>\n

Murray-Holme is a first-year scholar who was promoted to the U18s over the summer but has quickly impressed and looks set for a more prominent role heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

The youngster replaced Michael Laffey for the final 20 minutes against Salford City, while Oakley Cannonier also made his return from injury as one of nine players brought on.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters including This Is Anfield\u2018s Sam Millne after the UEFA Youth League clash with PSV, Page described Murray-Holme\u2019s performance as \u201coutstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaydn was outstanding. It\u2019s no coincidence that we took control of the midfield [after he came on] in the second half,\u201d the U21s head coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got on the ball, he was brave with his passing options. He wasn\u2019t just safe, backwards and square, he wasn\u2019t afraid to play between the lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really pleased with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Liverpool will consider signing new defender<\/p>\n

\"KIRKBY,<\/p>\n

Even as an elite-level club it is not uncommon for Liverpool to bring players in on trial to potentially earn a contract as part of the academy.<\/p>\n

Their interest in another young defender comes with the January transfer window approaching and the likes of Rhys Williams<\/a> and Calvin Ramsay<\/a> \u2013 who both played on Saturday \u2013 expected to be available for moves.<\/p>\n

This Is Anfield understands Nallo could also depart on loan, though any decision over the 19-year-old\u2019s future will depend on the shape of Arne Slot<\/a>\u2018s first-team squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool U21s continued their mid-season break from competitive fixtures with a 2-0 friendly win over Salford City on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[71244,218,71247,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-291423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-academy","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-lfc-under-21s","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}