Leicester City defender Jonny Evans has praised Liverpool youngster Conor Bradley’s display for Northern Ireland on Saturday.
Bradley earned his ninth senior cap for his country as they beat Kosovo 1-0. And in quotes from the Manchester Evening News, Evans admitted he was blown away by the Liverpool youngster.
“It’s brilliant that the young players have had the experience and game time during the summer and what they will have learned from that – some of them have shown real promise,” he said. “It takes me back to coming into the squad myself and how the older players received me. I want to receive the younger players in the same way. We all do.
“I thought Conor Bradley was superb the other night and Shea Charles came in during the summer and that’s what we want to see – young lads making an impression and hopefully bring the country forward.”
Bradley takes club form onto international stage
At this point, it would be more of a surprise if Bradley hadn’t performed superbly for his country.
The young right-back has been in brilliant form ever since joining Bolton Wanderers on-loan this summer. His display for his country was simply a continuation of that.
Of course, Bradley was getting picked for Northern Ireland whilst still an academy player at Liverpool. That alone is testament to his ability.
But now that he’s playing regular men’s football, he should kick-on even further.
It must be said that the standard of opposition here was pretty low. As they compete in the third tier of the Nations League they are facing lower ranked nations.
Still, their form so far has seen them bottom of a group containing Greece, Cyprus and Kosovo. As a result, Saturday’s result is a very positive one.
They still have a chance of finishing second in the group and avoiding a relegation play off, though. To do that they must take at least a point away to top of the table Greece.
A tall order perhaps. But if they are to do it, Bradley may well be key.
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