One of Liverpool’s breakout stars of this season has been backed to go on and become a fully fledged Anfield legend.
A succession of injuries to established players has forced Jurgen Klopp to blood a series of up-and-coming talents in the first team, some of whom have already shown that they more than belong at senior level.
One of those is Conor Bradley, who’s been a confident and assured presence at right-back since coming in for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold earlier this year.
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The 20-year-old’s performance against Brighton on Sunday won glowing praise from Glenn Murray, who was analysing the game on Match of the Day 2.
The ex-Seagulls striker said of the Liverpool defender: “Very good from Conor Bradley. He realises what he was doing wrong. He becomes aggressive. He steps in all of a sudden.
“Again here, he has the nous to understand what he was doing wrong. This is all after the 30th minute. He was outstanding. He is going to be one of the Liverpool greats, I think, if he continues.”
There were times during the first half yesterday that Bradley’s defensive positioning could’ve been better, with Brighton getting some joy along his flank, but he gradually settled into the game to enjoy another strong performance.
He was Liverpool’s highest-rated player according to Sofascore metrics, having won six tackles and a whopping 11 duels, along with completing four dribbles and 42 of his 49 passes, making three interceptions and executing four key passes.
He made a series of timely interventions at the back when the Seagulls were threatening an equaliser in the closing stages on Sunday, and the 20-year-old’s overall displays have been so commanding that Trent hinted that he mightn’t be guaranteed to come straight back into the team when fully recovered from injury.
Bradley still has a long way to go before fulfilling Murray’s claim that he could become a Liverpool ‘great’ – he’s only made 24 senior Reds appearances so far – but everything that he’s shown since the turn of the year suggests that he’s well on the right track to replicating the impact made by his positional peer who’s now out vice-captain.
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