Conor Bradley, the last Academy gem discovered by Klopp before his departure

He has opened up a place for him in Klopp's eleven and the youngster is seizing his moment

31/01/2024, 09:08 PM +00:00

Conor Bradley is starting to knock on the door of the starting line-up. Alexander-Arnold's injury (he will be out for several weeks with a small tear in his lateral knee ligament) has opened up a place for him in Klopp's eleven and the youngster is seizing his moment. Four games have shown that there is a great talent brewing at right-back for Liverpool and now against Chelsea he scored his first first goal for the first team.

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Against Norwich, he had a great game. He gave two assists, the first of them to Darwin Nunez, a demonstration of his ability to get into the box and his physicality after stealing the ball. His great performance ended with three key passes, a 90.5% passing success rate and six crosses.

Conor Bradley has not had an easy season. Last year he had a great season with Bolton in League One (7 goals and 6 assists), which earned him a starting place in Northern Ireland and Liverpool wanted to trust him in the first team. However, he picked up a back injury in pre-season and was unable to play until 30 November. A day later, he renewed his contract until 2027.

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New problem for Klopp

The worst thing about Conor Bradley is that his partner at right-back for Liverpool is Alexander-Arnold. The Englishman is one of the best players in the world in his position and, a priori, only his absence can provide him with minutes. However, there is another scenario in which Bradley can play more and that is with Alexander-Arnold in midfield. It is an area where Klopp is increasingly placing him (in fact, it seems to be Southgate's favourite) and Alexander-Arnold's repeated defensive problems may make moving him forward an option to consider. In this scenario, Bradley could play more. A variant that Klopp will assess when he has both healthy. A gift he will leave at Anfield before he leaves.