Why Tom Huddlestone plays for Manchester United's academy and how Liverpool have copied

Tom Huddlestone has provided insight into his player-coach role with Manchester United, which sees him put on his boots again and compete against players much his junior.

United appointed Paul McShane in a pioneering player-coach academy position in the summer of 2021, which involved developing players and giving on-field instructions.

Given that McShane had come through United's academy at the start of his career, he was the perfect inaugural candidate to take up a role that initially raised eyebrows.

The experiment was deemed a success by United and when McShane stepped back from playing and focussed his attention on coaching, a replacement was needed.

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That's when former Premier League midfielder Huddlestone, who has played for Tottenham, Derby, Hull and England, was brought into the club to succeed McShane. Huddlestone took up the player-coach role in the academy in August 2022 and those who are unfamiliar with United's youth set-up are still surprised to see him feature for the Under-21s, despite him now coming to the end of his second season in his position.

The hybrid role has been a huge success and even Liverpool have followed suit, with the Merseyside club bringing former player Jay Spearing back into their academy.

Huddlestone scored the winning goal for the U21s against Manchester City at Leigh Sports Village in February and recently sat down with The Telegraph to discuss his position.

"My initial thought was to keep playing. But none of the offers floated my boat," Huddlestone said when asked about his transition into the academy role. "We’d spoken [Huddlestone and McShane] during the season. He might have thought I was hinting."

Huddlestone is involved in planning meetings, setting up and joining in the warm-up for academy players and he'll also lead a section of each training session.

He explained: “Say mine’s a passing drill at the start, I’ll take that and, if I can get my breath back, join in. Then I’m a player helping the lads from within.

“I might have something in my mind needing eight players, but I’m left with two or three. The challenge is finding the balance and the adaptability to still go after the same result.

“So much detail goes into everything. As a player, I took that for granted. I don’t know where I thought the information in team meetings was coming from but it was just there. You don’t realise the hours the staff put in!”

When asked about his future aspirations, Huddlestone said: “Eventually I want to manage. If I didn’t give it a bash after 20 years of playing, I think in my 50s I’d regret it. I’ve seen people jump into jobs too soon – I don’t want to do that."

United's U21s play Liverpool at Old Trafford on Friday night and Huddlestone, who currently has a knock, should be present on the touchline with manager Travis Binnion.