After Sunday’s defeat away to Manchester United capped off what has been an awful week for Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers, it emerged that the Ulsterman had decided that big money goalkeeper Simon Mignolet would be dropped for the foreseeable future.

"I said to Simon that it's for an indefinite period," said Rodgers. "I felt I had to change it because we have to find solutions throughout the squad to be better."

Taking such a decision is understandable given the Belgian has been in a state of terminal decline over the past 6 months and has been one of many problems for Reds this season. However, the decision to replace him with Brad Jones – himself having been a competent yet never fully convincing goalkeeper – was both perplexing and somewhat concerning long-term.

It's concerning because ever since Rodgers walked through the Melwood doors the first time he has always taken the opportunity to speak about giving youth a chance – and to start with he did.

The notable example would be Raheem Sterling who has flourished under his stewardship even if he has been overused this season; Jon Flanagan came of age during the 2013/14 season whilst both Suso and Andre Wisdom were given minutes early on in his reign.

However rather than look to the academy to solve inherent deficiencies in the side he has instead insisted on persisting with known entities that have long since shown to be simply not good enough to play anything more than a supporting role.

For instance, why replace Mignolet with a 32 year old who has been at the club since 2010 and hasn’t once looked anything greater than a third-choice backup?

The goalkeeping situation lower down in the academy makes the issue more baffling. The likes of Ward and Vigoroux are semi-decent sweeper-keepers but in the 18 year old Ryan Fulton, Liverpool finally have a goalkeeping talent that could make the step up to the big leagues.

Rather than stick with the same faces why not adhere to the supposed ideology of youth and give a goalkeeper that is genuinely in tune with the idea of sweeping and building from the back a go?

Concerns over experience are fair but if you approach every situation with that mentality you’ll never get the likes of David De Gea, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Jan Oblak and Thibaut Courtois coming through – all of which were picked at the expense of a more experience yet less able counterpart.

It’s the same situation up front for Liverpool.

Liverpool went without a recognised striker away to United and whilst Raheem Sterling did an admirable job at tormenting the opposition defence he lacked the finishing touch of someone who is used to finding themselves in those positions.

It is clear Rodgers lacks faith in the slow Rickie Lambert, the enigma of Mario Balotelli and the profligate Fabio Borini so again, why not look towards Kirkby?

Liverpool’s youngest ever starter Jerome Sinclair has finally shaken off the injuries that have plagued the last year of his career and is showing the kind of promise to make the step up to senior football.

A lack of experience should be no excuse to not play him. It could do Rodgers no harm to cast an eye over to the manager who beat him on Sunday and how he was more than happy to bench the world known Falcao for a 19-year-old academy product in James Wilson.

Sinclair is raw but he has the mobility and eye for a goal that Liverpool’s other senior options simply cannot offer. At worst these players return to under 21 football with greater experience, at best they cement themselves as first team regulars and help dig Rodgers out of his current hole.

These same principles apply to other, more experienced youngsters at the club – a number of which were signed in the summer.

When it is the experienced players like Simon Mignolet, Glen Johnson, Martin Skrtel, Dejan Lovren and even Steven Gerrard that repeatedly let the team down, there is no excuse to not give the kids a go. At least then the Liverpool won’t be held back by passengers.