The young Alex Serrano.

Earlier in the evening, one of the player - Maxi had an injury during an intra-squad friendly match and I'm one player short in the midfield area. So, I called my friend in Spain to asked if he could help me contact the agent of young attacking midfielder from Sporting Gijon.

During my time in Spain a few years back, I had the opportunity to tracks some young Spanish talent from lower division teams. One of the young player have surely caught my attention. At the age of 16, Alex Serrano has been a great talent to look out for.

Making 18 appearances and scored once for Sporting "B", he has fair amount of Pace, Acceleration, Dribbling, Finishing and Heading and high attributes on Natural Fitness.

Later that night, my friend told me that I can contact Alex Serrano's agent Jose Ramon Fernandez to discuss about future deal. His agent told that I can signed Serrano on a youth contract immediately but I have to pay Sporting Gijon an amount for compensation.

Alex Serrano Attributes

The Intra-Squad Match

It was a breezy evening at Prenton Park as the intra-squad game started. I decided to use 4-2-3-1 formations with Luis Suarez as lone striker and target man. I put Maxi Rodriguez (AMC), Downing (AML) and Henderson (AMR) as back-up for Suarez.

Lucas Leiva would played as deep laying playmaker alongside Jonjo Shelvey. At wingbacks, my choice are Jose Enrique (WBL) and Glen Johnson (WBR) with Martin Skrtel and Agger as centrebacks. Pepe Reina would always be my first choice goalie.

It's nothing much to comment about the game as the seniors took full control of the reserves throughout the first fifteen minutes or so but the deadlock only be broken a stroke of half an hours with Jonjo Shelvey the scorer.

Score at first-half remains 1:0.

On the 48th minutes, I saw Maxi went down to a tackle and he just stayed down. I knew at that exact moment he's out. So I substituted him with Charlie Adam and Downing with Craig Bellamy on the left-side.

Henderson made it 2:0 on the 59th minutes and Andy Carroll who came on for Suarez scored the third in added time. The game ended 3:0 with the seniors dominate a 64% possessions but it's really disappointing as they only strike 9 shots on target.

At the dressing room, physio Andy Renshaw reports that Maxi suffers an Achilles tendon injury and could be out for 7 weeks. Ouch! Could be bad news for me and the rest of the team.

First Training Session

I went for the first time to Melwood training ground today and I can sense a bottom-low in the players moral. Maybe it was because of my low reputations as their new manager.

Without their charismatic captain Steven Gerrard who is out due to groin injury the atmosphere in the training ground was a little bit monotonous.

I spoke to Jamie Carragher and goalkeeper Pepe Reina that I would like to named Reina as vice captain and Carragher as third captain. He seems downed but he agreed about my proposal. Reina also accepts his nomination as the vice captain. The reason is Reina is the last line of defense and I wanted him to communicate more with his defenses.

I can see the squad is a bit old with the likes of Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt in the midfield but I believed that they still has a lot to offer to the team in terms of their experiences. The likes of Jordan Henderson and Steward Downing can give the team some new ideas and energy to the midfield.

In the defensive unit I have veteran Carragher and the tenacious Daniel Agger. I still have a strong fullbacks and a plenty of youngsters in that area such as Liverpool's own John Flanagan and Argentinian Sebastian Coates.

The only bad part or I must say a problem for me is I don't have much options up-front with only Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez at my disposal. Maybe I would go into the market to get some attacking options but the transfer budgets have been the reason why I can go deep into the market. So, I will go for a bargain deal or free transfer instead. 

Assistant Manager Steve Clarke suggested that we should do an intra-squad friendly match between the senior team and reserve team for me to evaluates the players. The game will be played at Prenton Park tomorrow.

Youth Coach John Owens also suggested that I should look into 3 youth players that might have the potential to be brought to the senior team. They are Raheem Sterling, Kristoffer Peterson and Matthew Regan.

The Intra-Squad Match