Liverpool employ a much better policy than Manchester United when it comes to progressing young players through the squad, according to John Giles.
The former Republic of Ireland manager was speaking to Off The Ball and lauded the young players at Liverpool’s disposal, believing some of them to be capable of stepping up to the senior team.
“A couple of weeks ago we saw the young players and I don’t know all of the players but I obviously know [Curtis] Jones. They had about four or five excellent players on the night that could, I think, come in at any time, and they did.
“Klopp to be fair to him against Everton in the derby match a few weeks ago brought these players in and they did extremely well. We saw the young lads coming in a few weeks ago with Jones scoring that amazing goal.
“But I’d say there’s three or four or five of those players that could come into the first team. They could actually perform for the first team, not just come into the squad.
“So there’s a huge depth of talent at that club and obviously it’s down to Klopp doing it,” Giles said.
'United have a ridiculous policy'
However, the Leeds legend feels that while Manchester United have plenty of promising young players that they have struggled to develop them as well as Liverpool have.
“[Klopp] has been doing it in the four years where he’s been the only manager there. Manchester United have done it in the last six years with four or five managers, which is never a good sign anyway.
“I’m talking about the immediate future for Manchester United. There are a lot of promising players but is [Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer going to be able to do it? I would have preferred to see a more experienced manager coming in there.
“They seem to have a policy at Manchester United that, ‘We’re not going to sign any players, say, above 23.’ I think it’s a ridiculous policy,” Giles said.
The former Ireland player felt that experienced players at badly needed at Old Trafford but that Solskjaer doesn’t have the authority to bring them in.
“Sometimes you need that experienced player that you’re not going to get a return on in the transfer market but you’re going to get him for the time being to bring these players on.
“I don’t think anyway that Solskjaer is really in charge of the whole situation. The coming and going of players for example.
“They’ve got plenty of promising players but they’ve got to get a couple of experienced players in there,” Giles said.
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