The Lad Can Play: Nathan Eccleston

Irrespective of what some would have you believe, it is foolhardy to try and predict at an early age which players can make it at any professional club, let alone one with Liverpool's ambitions.

This should be the principle underlying any talk about the prospects of those players at the academy or in the reserves. Some might have the talent but not the characther, others might lack the physical strength to make a mark and then there are those for whom strength is the only attribute.

It is a one of or a combination of these factors that ultimately kill off many hopes. And the closer they get to the first team, then the more under scrutiny they will be.

This specific kind of pressure by itself can be enough to filter away some of those who don't have the determination required.

That is unlikely to be the case with Nathan Eccleston. Handed a new contract last year, there were rumours that the player could be on his way out having irritated the club's management by insisting that he deserved to be playing in the reserves rather than the academy.

Eventually this rumour died down and this season Eccleston has been playing for the reserves on a regular basis. That's not to say that the self-belief that supposedly led him to protest last year has been quietened down.

Indeed if there is an aspect of his play that is striking, then it surely is his supreme belief in his abilities. That, technically, he can pull off tricks that are out of the reach of lesser players obviously helps but even so he does constantly push his limits.

That, perhaps, is the biggest challenge facing him. The talent is there, so too the knack for scoring goals and the speed to handle football at a higher level. Yet tactically he needs to learn how to fit in and given today's highly regimented manner with which teams play that is as vital as the natural talent.

Whether Eccleston can best achieve that in the reserves or with a loan spell remains to be seen. What is sure, however, is that his standpoint last year was right: he deserves to be playing on a regular basis at the highest possible level to him. It is the only way with which it can be determined whether he can eventually make it all the way to the first team.

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