Image Credits: Imago Images
Rob Page’s Liverpool Under-21s finished their Premier League 2 regular season in seventh place out of 26 Category One academies, confirming their place in the end-of-season play-offs with a record of 11 wins, two draws, and seven losses from their 20 fixtures.
It has been a significant season for the academy, not least because of the man leading it.
Page, the former Wales national team manager who guided his country through Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup, was appointed as U21 Head Coach in June 2025, replacing Barry Lewtas, who had spent 12 years developing talent at the club.
Page has brought senior international experience to Kirkby and has focused on closing the technical gap between academy and first-team football, operating primarily in a 4-2-3-1 system.
The numbers across the season tell an encouraging story.
Liverpool scored 49 goals at an average of 2.45 per game, while conceding 36.
Midfielder Kieran Morrison was the standout performer, contributing 14 goals and four assists for a total of 18 goal involvements, averaging over 1.0 goal contributions per 90 minutes.
Forward Keyrol Figueroa added nine goals, and Will Wright chipped in with four goals and five assists.
The home form was a particular strength, with Liverpool collecting 21 of their 35 points at the Kirkby Academy.
Away from home, however, they managed just 14 points, a vulnerability that has been noted.
The regular season concluded on Friday night, and with it came confirmation of Liverpool’s play-off fate.
As the seventh-placed side, they have been drawn against Crystal Palace, who finished tenth, with the tie to be played at the Liverpool Academy in Kirkby, giving the Reds home advantage.
The Premier League 2 play-off format, which was restructured two seasons ago into a Swiss Model and knockout system, is designed to replicate the pressure of senior tournament football.
The top 16 teams from the 26-club single table qualify, with pairs decided strictly by league position, first against sixteenth, second against fifteenth, and so on down the bracket.
The stakes are real: the champions earn qualification for next season’s Premier League International Cup, where they would face elite European academies including Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
The problem for Liverpool is that this draw could hardly have thrown up a more awkward opponent.
Just weeks ago, in the final game of the regular season in late March, Palace travelled to Kirkby and won 5-1.
It was a damaging result that exposed two clear weaknesses in Page’s setup, a high defensive line that Palace repeatedly ran in behind, and a vulnerability to set pieces that the London club exploited ruthlessly.
Goalkeeper Armin Pecsi made several high-profile saves that night, but even his efforts could not prevent a heavy defeat.
Page will know that those same Palace players are coming back to the same ground, armed with the same blueprint.
Fixture details for the tie will be announced on the club’s official site in due course, but when it comes, Liverpool will need a response that the regular season did not always suggest they were capable of producing.
