The latest Talking Reds by Harry Hugo examines the great work being done at youth and U21 level at Anfield...

So Brendan Rodgers is doing great: brilliant, in fact. We're second in the league and as a fan group we're partying harder than we have for a long while.

But it's not just all smiles in the first team, the Academy at Liverpool is ticking along pretty nicely too; providing good results and top class talent.

Freedom seems to be the repeated word sounded from the Kirkby base camp. Players and coaches alike want a freedom of play that emanates throughout the youth sectors under their control. Watching the U21s twice this week you can see that being implemented too.

With freedom comes increased maturity and responsibility; readying the players for the step up to the first team. This isn't out of reach for any player in Liverpool's set-up. Joao Teixeira lunged out and grabbed the gauntlet to lay down when he was given his chance, expressing his self-confidence and honed technique with every touch of the ball against Fulham.

Teixeira's short cameo at Craven Cottage epitomised the ideology that's looking to be implemented across the club: fearlessness and fluidity. The Portuguese youngster's shot in his first few first-team minutes exemplified this.

But although the players play with freedom, the structure and execution of the coaching is something that must be recognised. Neil Critchley is doing a magnificent job with the U18 squad, preparing and developing the current crop of young talent we have. Harry Wilson, for instance, has made his full international debut. He's 16. He was ready. The culture at Liverpool at the moment is to be constantly on call; to expect the unexpected - it can only be beneficial for the players and their eagerness to impress.

Further up the food chain, Alex Inglethorpe continues to impress as a man and a manager for the U21s. I don't know if it's his humble nature or his outside-of-the-box techniques that make me warm to him more, but both are key factors in his success story. The fact that an old Michael Owen documentary was used to inspire the U21 lads pre-game at Anfield on Thursday night in correspondence with a team talk, shows the level of alternative thinking that we're dealing with.

Here's Inglethorpe's explanation behind the video: "Before the game we watched a six-minute documentary about Michael Owen. The reason we did that was because it included a lot of footage of Michael playing reserve and youth-team football at Anfield when there was nobody there! I think [Anfield] is a fantastic place to come and make an impression like he did all those years ago and it can give an indication to the manager and support staff that a player is ready when he can perform at such a stadium."

The right coaching at this stage in a player's development is essential and we have everything geared up to provide this at Kirkby.

This, in addition with the constant 'chance' that Brendan Rodgers represents for the youth teams, is something that's going to boost morale within the squads - and does. This confidence teamed with players that have incredible ability (like Rossiter, Dunn, Lussey, Jones and Peterson) can only lead to direct results. These results are beginning to come into line with the first team; both in style and substance.

At the start of January I made it clear in my column that transfer additions weren't paramount as the depth we have coming through the club is equally important. I estimated that more first-team debuts were on the cards. Rossiter had his experience in the first-team matchday squad whilst Teixeira has experienced even more.

We're doing it right. Whatever right is, we're doing it. The fact is that the Liverpool Academy is currently filled with success stories and it's just a matter of time before there's another. This story is a page turner.