NEIL CRITCHLEY never did have a claim to fame — or ever want one.
Yet by the end of tonight’s FA Cup fourth-round replay against Shrewsbury, Liverpool’s modest Under-23s coach may have written his name into the annals of Anfield history.
Neil Critchley is ready to make his Anfield debut on TuesdayCredit: PA:Press Association
In his senior playing career with Crewe Critchley, 41, only made one appearance — a 3-0 defeat away to Fulham in September 1999.
After that he took the hint and for the last 20 years has been happy to remain in the background coaching youngsters.
First it was with Crewe and from 2013 at Liverpool.
His biggest achievement in the game has been to be one of only 16 in the country to be hand-picked by the FA to take an elite Uefa coaching badge.
That, and perhaps helping Trent Alexander-Arnold to develop into probably the best right-back in the world.
Victory over League One Shrews would not give him the legendary status of a Shankly, Paisley, Dalglish or current boss Klopp.
But it would still get him an honourable mention.
For he is attempting to do what none of the Kop’s greatest managers past or present have ever achieved.
And that is to guide a bunch of kids through a replay and into the fifth round in his first and only match in charge of Liverpool at Anfield.
Critchley is talking a good game, too, a bit like Shankly always did.
Liverpool stars, including Roberto Firmino, are on their winter breakCredit: Instagram / @roberto_firmino
Georginio Wijnaldum is enjoying some welcome time in the sunCredit: Instagram / @gwijnaldum
As the icon who created the spirit of Anfield, the Scotsman was famous for his sayings.
The most quoted remains: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death.
“I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”
Critchley, cast into the limelight because Klopp is making a stand over the game being enforced on his club during the Premier League’s ‘winter break’, is not under pressure to get that serious.
After all no one, least of all Klopp, batted an eyelid back in December when Critchley and his kids lost 5-0 away to Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg.
But he wants more than just a few back slaps this time.
Critchley, promoted from bossing the U18s in 2017, said: “I was pleased by a lot of what we did at Villa. But still, I couldn’t help being disappointed by the result. We didn’t do well enough in both boxes and that’s not a recipe for success.
“So you have to do better at keeping them out at one end and scoring them at the other.
“We are talking about things we need to do to be in this game and this time it’s a different sort of cup tie.
“Who knows, in front of a full house and with a highly-experienced side, Shrewsbury might feel the pressure.
“There is a lot of the unknown in this game.
“What I do know is that while you can see how our first team would run through brick walls for each other, my players also fight for the cause all the time.”
Klopp, he claimed, may even be in the stand so he will not exactly be walking alone.
Joe Gomez is recuperating over the winter breakCredit: Instagram / @tamaratia
And he stresses of the German boss: “His presence is always felt even if he’s not there.”
Yet Critchley hardly sounds like he is just helping Liverpool fulfil a fixture this time.
He may even be thinking of one of the great Shankly’s less-quoted maxims: “If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
