Barry Lewtas on Stoke test, Koumas loan and more
Barry Lewtas is confident the hard work being put in at the AXA Training Centre will soon see his Liverpool U21s side return to winning ways.
Results so far in 2025 have been mixed for the Reds’ development squad, with last weekend’s 3-0 home defeat by Chelsea following a 1-1 draw away at Southampton, when the hosts claimed a 96th-minute equaliser.
Tonight, Lewtas’ charges head to Stoke City in Premier League 2 in a 7pm GMT kick-off, with the fixture taking place at Bet365 Stadium.
In the Potters’ senior ranks is Liverpool loanee Lewis Koumas, who has made a big impression by scoring goals and assisting in the Championship this term.
Ahead of the trip to Stoke, Lewtas spoke to Liverpoolfc.com about recent games, the loan impact of Koumas and senior debuts for Academy players…
On missing chances and conceding goals in recent weeks…
It isn’t always the best recipe! But mixed in there we see light at the end of the tunnel, there’s no question of that as both a group of staff and players. There’s no complaining internally and no blaming of each other. For us, we were more than playing our part in a cracking game against Chelsea, similar to the game against Tottenham when we conceded right at the end. We conceded in the 96th minute at Southampton, too, so we know what we are doing right but we know more importantly as well the areas we need to get better in, and we are working unbelievably hard to fix that. For us internally, we know what we are trying to do and where we are trying to improve and we are pretty confident that will change pretty soon.
The beauty for us is we know we are not a million miles off where we want to be, so we are not coming in every day and ripping up the playbook. The reality for us is there are certain things we need to get better at and we are working really hard to do that. The players are working really hard and the effort and the commitment is really good. It has not gone our way in certain games and we own that and we take full responsibility for that, but we are really confident we are close to getting it right.
