Martin Kelly (footballer)

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Martin Kelly
Personal information
Full name Martin Ronald Kelly[1]
Height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Position(s) Centre Back, Right Back
Team information
Current team
 Liverpool
Number 34
Youth career
1997–2007 Liverpool
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2007– Liverpool 12 (0)
2009 → Huddersfield Town (loan) 7 (1)
International career‡
2009 England U19 5 (0)
2009 England U20 4 (0)
2010– England U21 2 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 2 February 2011
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 22:43, 10 August 2010

Martin Ronald Kelly (born 27 April 1990) is an English footballer who plays for Liverpool as a full back, a wingback or a centre-back. His main qualities are his ability to shut the left wing against dangerous wingers and to make overlapping runs to put dangerous crosses into the box. [citation needed]

Career

Liverpool

2007-08

Born in Whiston, Kelly was promoted to Melwood from the club's academy in the summer of 2007. In an interview for Liverpool's official website he spoke about his delight at making the step up despite missing roughly two years of football for the youth team due to back problems.[3]

Kelly broke into Gary Ablett's title winning reserves team during 2007–08. He scored the second goal in Liverpool's 3–0 win over UANL Tigres in the Dallas Cup 2008 final on 23 March 2008.

2008–09

Ahead of the 2008–09 season he received a first team squad number.[4] He earned his first call up to the senior team in November 2008 when he was an unused substitute in Liverpool's Champions League group stage match against Marseille.[5] Not long after, he made his debut as a substitute for Jamie Carragher in the same competition against PSV Eindhoven on 9 December 2008.[6]

Huddersfield Town

On 26 March 2009, as the loan transfer window closed, Kelly joined Football League One side Huddersfield Town on loan until the end of the season.[7] He made his debut for the Terriers as a left-back in the 2–1 win over Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Stadium on 31 March 2009, and received praise for his composed performance. On 18 April, he scored his first goal in professional football, scoring the winner in Huddersfield's 3–2 win over Walsall at the Bescot Stadium.[8]

2009–10

Rafael Benítez suggested that the departure of Sami Hyypia from Liverpool could open a window for Kelly into the first team, with his progress expected to be monitored closely in pre-season.[9] Kelly made his first competitive start for Liverpool as a right back against Olympique Lyon in the UEFA Champions League on 20 October 2009, in which he walked off injured in the 74th minute. He was named man of the match by Liverpool's official website after a highly impressive performance. He then became sidelined with a groin injury.[citation needed] Kelly completed his comeback from injury on 25 February 2010, coming on as a substitute against FC Unirea Urziceni in the Europa League. He then made his Premier League debut replacing Glen Johnson in the 4–1 win over Portsmouth at Anfield.

2010–11

Kelly started in Liverpool's UEFA Europa League qualifiers against Rabotnicki Skopje, the play-offs against Trabzonspor, and Liverpool's opening two group games, defeating Steaua Bucureşti and drawing with FC Utrecht. On the 22nd of September, he played in the shock Carling Cup 3rd round exit to Northampton Town, Liverpool losing 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 draw. On the 21st of October, he played the full 90 minutes in the Reds' 0-0 UEFA Europa League draw against Napoli, and was an unused substitute in Liverpool's 1-0 Premier League win against Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium on Halloween. He was also an unused substitute in their 3-1 Europa League group game win against Napoli on the 4th of November. Kelly made his first Premiership start of the season as an emergency replacement for Sotirios Kyrgiakos on the 7th of November against Chelsea in a match which Liverpool won 2-0. During that game, Kelly put in a solid defensive display, gaining recognition as one of the most promising young right-backs in the country. He started Liverpool's 1-1 Premier League draw with Wigan on the 10th of November. He also started and played the full 90 minutes in the Reds' 1-1 UEFA Europa League draw with Steaua Bucureşti on the 2nd of December. The next day, he signed a 3-year contract extension which will keep him at the club until 30 June 2014. On the 6th of December, Kelly played the last 5 minutes of Liverpool's 3-0 Premier League win against Aston Villa at Anfield. 9 days later, he played the return Europa League group game against FC Utrecht, the scoring ending in a 0-0 draw. The result meant Liverpool qualified top of Group K. On 9 January 2011 he started in Liverpool's FA Cup 3rd round tie away to Manchester United and Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish, praised his performance afterwards saying "He was as good as anyone on the pitch today". This performance led to him being named Man of the Match by Liverpool voters. He subsequently started against Blackpool on the 12th of January 2011 and in the Merseyside Derby on the 16th of January, forcing Liverpool's first choice Glen Johnson to play left back. He won the Liverpoolfc.tv journalist's Man of the Match Award for his performance against Everton. Jamie Carragher complemented his talents by saying "I was in the stand against Everton and when he made that run past Leighton Baines, I thought it was Thierry Henry against me all those years ago. It was turbo charged."[10] Kelly started the next game against Stoke city where Liverpool won 2-0, again he gave a solid performance making him the first choice right back. From his recent performances, he has been tipped to become England's next right back. He played the full match in both fixtures as Liverpool completed their double over Chelsea with a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge on the 6th of February. His performance was praised by former Liverpool midfielder Ray Houghton, who stated that Kelly was one of the key players in the win over Chelsea at The Bridge. However he suffered a hamstring injury in the 3-1 defeat to West Ham United. On the 8th March 2011, Martin Kelly won the Liverpool February player of the month award.

International career

In August 2009 Kelly was called up to the England U20 squad for the match against Serbia and made his debut in the 5–0 victory. He subsequently played all three matches for the side in the Under-20 World Cup finals in Egypt that year. Kelly was called up in early 2009 for the England U19 squad that played Spain U19s on 10 February.[11][12] Kelly went on to make 5 appearances for the Under-19s with his last coming in a 2–1 win over Scotland Under-19 on the 1 June 2009.

Kelly made his debut for the England Under-20 in a 5–0 win over Montenegro Under-20 in a pre 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup friendly. He also played at the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt as England finished bottom of Group D. Kelly has made 4 appearances for the Under-20 side.

On 5 August 2010, Kelly received his first call-up to the England Under-21 squad, along with Aston Villa's Marc Albrighton and Sunderland's Jordan Henderson. On 10 August 2010, he came on as a substitute and scored on his debut appearance.

Club statistics

Club Season League FA Cup Football League Cup Europe Other[13] Total
App Goals App Goals App Goals App Goals App Goals App Goals
Liverpool
2010–11 14 0 1 0 1 0 11 0 0 0 27 0
Liverpool
2009–10 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 0
Huddersfield Town
2008–09 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 1
Liverpool
2008–09 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
Club Total 22 1 1 0 1 0 14 0 0 0 38 1
Last updated 9 March 2011[14]

Honours

References

  1. ^ "Statistics" (PDF). Premier League. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  2. ^ http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/team/first-team/player/34-martin-kelly
  3. ^ "Reserves in profile: Martin Kelly". Liverpool F.C. 14 October 2008. Retrieved 9 December 2008.
  4. ^ "Trio handed first-team squad numbers". Liverpool F.C. 8 August 2008. Retrieved 9 December 2008.
  5. ^ "Liverpool 1 – Marseille 0: match report". Liverpool F.C. 26 November 2008. Retrieved 9 December 2008. [dead link]
  6. ^ "PSV 1 – Liverpool 3: match report". Liverpool F.C. 9 December 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2008. [dead link]
  7. ^ "Defender joins Terries on loan". Liverpool F.C. 26 March 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
  8. ^ "Walsall 2–3 Huddersfield". BBC Sport. 18 April 2009. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
  9. ^ "Rafa: Sami leaving could be chance". Liverpool F.C. 28 May 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
  10. ^ Jamie Carragher[1]
  11. ^ "Kelly relishing Reds challenge". Liverpool F.C. 21 February 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  12. ^ "Martin set his sights". The Football Association. 25 March 2009.
  13. ^ Includes other competitive competitions, including the FA Community Shield, UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, Football League Trophy
  14. ^ "Career Stats". LFC History. Retrieved 31 October 2009.

External links

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