Phil Roscoe, Liverpool's assistant academy manager, offers an insight into how our young players are primed to make the step up to Melwood in our latest weekly academy column.

Youngsters have been called up for training with the first team over the past two weeks while most of the senior squad embarked on international duty.

In this week's Academy piece, Phil writes about the message delivered to each of the lads before they make the trip from Kirkby to the club's West Derby base: don't be in awe, make sure you shine.

On Saturday, our U18s lost 4-1 to Stoke at the Academy. I watched the first half of the U16s game and then walked over to watch the U18s' second half. 

The result was disappointing for the players and to someone outside of the Academy, it may seem quite negative, but at the moment, with our age groups, we have a situation were players are constantly progressing and that has a knock-on effect.

A number of boys have progressed to the first-team squad and that has seen the numbers dwindle within the U21 ranks.

So they've been replenished with some of the players from the U18s, which has seen some U16s move up and so on.

This knock-on effect can at times be a negative, like against Stoke, when we were beaten by a team who were two, three and, in some instances, four years older than some of our players.

But on the positive side and, more importantly, it gave some of our young players a very real taste of what is to come.

It's bound to hurt at times because you'll get results like the Stoke one. But it says a lot about what is being achieved because so many players are progressing. 

The international week has been a great opportunity for a lot of the lads to experience training at Melwood.

In quite a few of the international breaks recently, the manager has asked for U21s, U18s and even some of the schoolboys to go up and train with the first team, get used to the surroundings and have the chance to shine.

The feedback has been that the boys did really well and have settled well.

Sometimes the manager will call the whole U21 squad. But he'll also ask for individual players, depending on how they have been doing ability-wise or if a specific type of player is required.

All the staff at the Academy drum a certain message into our players and it was emphasised when the manager came over and spoke to the lads a couple of weeks ago.

The message is that when a player goes up to Melwood, he shouldn't be in awe of the environment and in awe of the people he's playing with or against, whether it's Luis Suarez or Steven Gerrard or whoever.

He needs to grasp the opportunity and impress. There's simply no room for being intimidated or worried about playing your own game.

We say to them: "Go up and flourish - don't be overshadowed by the individuals who are already there."

I went over to Melwood one day last week and watched the five-a-side games, where Jamie Carragher was in the same team as some of our lads showing them clearly he trains the same way he plays on a matchday.

He was there dishing out information, showing players what to do and telling them where to go. To get that advice from someone so experienced is essential for the players who were in his team. For me, it was just fantastic to see.

You can guide, advise and explain to any player as clearly as possible what they must do when they get to Melwood. That player will go over equipped with all the necessary information and it will be clear what he needs to do to impress.

The player can have all the advice in the world, but if he doesn't embrace the opportunity that has been presented to him, whether it's a one-off chance or a more regular set-up, then he can't succeed.

What we actually work more on here though, is when the players come back from Melwood.

For example, you might have an U16s player whose individually planned development programme requires him to play for his age group one week, the next week play for the U18s, then the NextGen, then he might go up and train at Melwood before coming back down to play for the U18s again.

And it's down to the player to be able to stay focused and deal with the possible rotation of squads and environments.

He must realise that he is progressing but is still along way off being a Liverpool first-team player. 

Our message is this: "You've trained at Melwood and you've played with or against the likes of Gerrard or Suarez and other fantastic players.

"Now you know what you need to do to improve and get this opportunity again. Now come back here and use that experience positively. Show us that you can get back up there again."

That's a massive part of our job here at the Academy: managing the expectations of the player when he comes back and keeping the boys' feet firmly on the ground. 

Before we finish, I'd like to point fans towards a fundraiser that we are doing in May in memory of Stephen Packer, one of our U9s players who passed away last year.

Stephen lost his incredibly brave battle with cancer in November 2012 and his passing was a really tragic event for everyone at the Academy.

Our staff here are going to complete a three-peak challenge in his name and it would be great if you could help us raise these vital funds for Alder Hey, in memory of Stephen.

To donate now via our JustGiving page, click here>>

You can also donate by texting SPAC93 followed by the amount that you would like to pledge to 70070. For example, if you wish to send £5, text 'SPAC93 £5' to 70070.