20-year-old Liverpool youngster expected to become part of Jurgen Klopp’s first-team plans this season

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Jurgen Klopp will select an understudy for Trent Alexander-Arnold from the Liverpool academy this season.

Klopp has so far juggled between Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez for the right-back slot, with Curtis Jones even filling in for the Carabao Cup tie against Leicester City.

But according to the Liverpool ECHO, the Reds boss will bring youngster Conor Bradley into the fold once he returns from injury.

Bradley was excellent on-loan at Bolton Wanderers last year. Having featured during the opening games of Liverpool’s pre-season, he looked set for a first-team promotion for 2023/24.

Unfortunately, injury has meant that the 20-year-old has relinquished his initial chances of involvement. However, the ECHO report that Bradley is ‘expected’ to step into his role as back-up to Trent once fit again.

With a potential return date of simply ‘December’ it may still be a little while before we see the full-back in action, though.

Bradley set for first-team role

In some ways, the injury set-back in the summer might have been something of a blessing in disguise for Bradley.

Yes, it meant that he has missed the early weeks of the campaign where he certainly would have been given chances. But it also meant that he was certain to stay at Liverpool for the year.

After a great time out in League One, Klopp was obviously keen to take a look at what Bradley could do in pre-season.

Although early signs were good, there was still a chance that the Northern Ireland international would be deemed not yet ready. As a result, another loan move could have ensued.

But with injury keeping him out, Liverpool had no real choice but to keep Bradley around.

Clearly, no player wants to be injured. However, if he does recover by November, this will mean that the youngster is likely to get minutes for the first-team for the rest of the season.

With Trent so vital to the Reds, they do badly need someone who can take over for him on Europa League and domestic cup duty.

There are clearly high hopes for Bradley in that respect. Let’s hope we see more of him soon.