The manager is hoping the under-21s can improve whilst on international duty.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers believes that the England under-21s at Anfield should take a leaf out of Chelsea’s Juan Mata’s book when they are away at the European Championship this summer.
Four Reds players – Jordan Henderson, Jonjo Shelvey, Andre Wisdom and Jack Robinson – are included in the squad that will travel to Israel for the 2013 tournament and Rodgers believes they should try and emulate the attitude of Mata when he was in a similar position.
“I look upon it as a real positive that we have had four players called up,” the Northern Irishman was quoted in the Sun.
“Look at someone like Juan Mata. Two years ago he dropped down from the senior Spain squad to the U21s and helped them win the tournament.
“A year later he was part of the team who won Euro 2012 and then last summer he went off to the Olympics. This season he’s gone on and played more than 60 games.”
In fact it would have been five Liverpool players in Stuart Pearce’s squad had winger Raheem Sterling not ruled himself out through injury.
Rodgers is clearly pleased that the club and the Three Lions are being formed by the youth system at Anfield and that maybe in the near future he will have his own player of the quality of Mata.
The Spaniard played a colossal 64 matches in a bumper season for Chelsea in 2012/13, scoring 20 goals and assisting a further 28 in all competitions – as well as helping the side win the Europa League trophy.
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