After making a big impression towards the end of last season it was assumed that Liam Henderson would ‘kick-on’ this term.
At 18-year-old there are big expectations on the midfielder but so far first team opportunities have been rare.
Sustaining a place in the side, or matchday squad, can sometimes be a bigger challenge than the initial breakthrough with Henderson finding his chances limited.
Rather than drift out of the picture the Development League has given the midfielder the platform to push his game further and in some cases play alongside players such as Leigh Griffiths and Nir Bitton.
Henderson’s performance alongside Bitton in a friendly against Galatasaray in January certainly caught the eye but for now he’s having to use game time at Cappielow to advance his case for a first team place.
In Sunday’s SFA Youth Cup tie against Motherwell he was clearly the difference between the two side’s, driving forward at every opportunity and scoring a brilliantly taken goal in the 82nd minute when extra-time seemed inevitable.
The evolution of the u-20 league into a development league allows clubs a little more scope with Stevie Frail determined to use his side to push Henderson back into first team football.
Without doubt the 18-year-old is dominating games for the development side, even attempting some highly speculative long range shots at goal, with Frail looking to encourage his expression while refining it slightly for the benefit of the player and the team.
“He had a long range shot in the first half where he had other options,” Frail said. “We don’t want to be over critical of that but he could have taken another touch, driven forward a bit and had other options on either side.
“Against Aberdeen a couple of weeks ago he had two efforts from the halfway line, one when it wasn’t on, one when it was and it almost caught out their goalie. We don’t want to curb that but he has to realise when to do it and when not to.
“It’s not a case that he is trying to do too much, the way that I look at it it’s his enthusiasm to play the game, I liken it to when we were running about on the street, just wanting to play and try things. He needs to learn how to play within the team, he needs to work on his positional discipline, other people will drop off and get the ball to give to him to go and hurt teams.
“It’s an enthusiasm that we have to keep working on, working on his awareness and he’ll come up with the goods and the goals.
“I felt in the first half against Motherwell he was decent, he tried to force passes then he played an outrageous ball over the top for Kieran Tierney, we can’t curb that.
“I thought his performance in the second half went up a couple of levels, he was more disciplined, his ball retention was better, his final pass was better and he came up with an important goal.”
Frail added: “It’s upto us as coaches to manage him, he won’t be allowed to drift, the first team coaches won’t allow him to drift and we won’t let that either.
“The manager likes him as a player, we’re working on things that he has identified, if we do that we’ll see what a talent he is, he’s still only 18-year-old.
“These games aren’t easy for him, these are good games but he is showing his quality and if he keeps doing in training where he is working with the first team every day.
“At the minute he isn’t quite in the 18 involved with the team for matches but he’s around them every day, we all still have high hopes for him.”
Henderson was joined on the scoresheet by Kieran Tierney who followed up his 90 yard strike against Hearts with a more traditional effort from 15 yards.
“Kieran strikes the ball really well and has an eye for goal,” Frail added. “It’s a case of trying to nail that position down, Calum Waters is doing so well at left-back which is maybe Kieran’s natural position.
“He could maybe play play in a left of centre role in midfield but we’re playing him wider just now and is a real threat in the final third and scored another good goal.”
