Next in line

Diving into two new U18 debutants from over the last two weeks: Haydn Murray-Holme and Lenix Conde.

With ten goals and thirty, yes thirty, assists to his name last season, 16-year-old midfielder Haydn Murray-Holme looks like the pick of the bunch from this summer’s exceptionally bright intake. Born in the Wirral, Murray-Holme is currently enjoying the beginning of season number ten at Liverpool since joining at the age of six in a pre-academy capacity.

As I wrote in my piece on AJ Yeguo last Wednesday, Murray-Holme made his competitive U18 debut in the resounding 5-1 win at Stoke the other week, when he replaced young Scouser Ellis Hickman in the final ten minutes.

This of course means that the young advanced midfielder was applying his trade at U16 level before the natural progression this summer. In that age year (2008-borns), Murray-Holme is widely regarded as the top talent by all associated with the academy, with Liverpool very excited about the teenager. Most notably outside of that, Murray-Holme started in every one of LFC’s U17 PL Cup fixtures, a tournament providing both current and future first-year scholars a valuable step up in competition, helping them adjust to the demands of ‘more serious’ academy football before progressing to the U18 level.

In April of this year, Murray-Holme was involved in the U17 N.E.C. Nijmegen Cup¹, a highly-respected international youth tournament held in the Netherlands, featuring top academies from across Europe and South America. Out there, he played in a multitude of midfield roles not limited to: number ten, left central midfield, right central midfield and even in the six. Given that Haydn was generally sitting quite deep in midfield, over the course of this two-day tournament, it’s unsurprising that his defensive involvement was high, averaging 19 duels attempted, 2.5 interceptions and just under six recoveries per 90.

This doesn’t serve as a surprise. Despite Murray-Holme ultimately being defined by his sensationally exciting quality on the ball, which you’ll soon see, he is by all accounts a tenacious player in the middle of the park who constantly engages in duels and presses tirelessly. His grit isn’t just about flying into tackles; it’s about the constant pressure, the second efforts, the refusal to let a lost cause stay lost.

On the ball, is what sets HMH apart however. He’s a sharp, fleet-footed midfielder who comes alive in the final third. Everything he does with the ball at his feet has purpose and intent, incisive and instinctive without being rushed, always looking to make something happen. Murray-Holme sees the pitch in full, constantly scanning, and his passes are almost always perfectly-weighted whether he’s threading it through tight spaces or opening up play from deep.

Even with his back to goal, he’s comfortable, using quick touches, flicks, and little moments of invention to wriggle out of trouble. He’ll drop deep too, spotting angles and corridors that others miss and using them to set a forward away in transition or isolate wide players. The range of passing is excellent, but it’s the way he moves: the subtle body feints, the shift in momentum, the close control that lets him glide past a man with a short, elegant burst that catches the eyes of scouts and academy coaches more than any other strength of his.

---

*Bear with me, please. There of course aren’t any LFCTV clips, or any other ultra-HD quality footage to go off which you see in the majority of my academy profiles, so if you have to squint your eyes with any of these GIFS, then I apologise. I’ve tried my hardest to filter through the unusable footage however. Murray-Holme is wearing either the #8 or the #10 in every GIF.*

There’s a real grace in the way the midfielder moves with the ball at his feet. He doesn’t merely carry it, he glides with tight control and subtle but significantly effective shifts that make it hard to tell when he’s about to accelerate. It’s difficult movement to both anticipate and predict, naturally that draws defenders in almost instinctively as they think they’ve got a chance to nick it. But that’s the trap. Just as they commit, he bursts past them as shown above, slipping into the space they’ve left behind. It’s not just effective, it’s beautiful to watch.