Jurgen Klopp has praised the performance of Liverpool youngster Conor Bradley against Union Saint-Gilloise.
The Reds were disappointing overall, as a much rotated side fell to a 2-1 loss in Belgium. Nevertheless, Bradley stood up well for 90 minutes, and Klopp made sure to highlight the 20-year-old’s contribution during his post-match press conference.
“He will be, he will be,” said the manager, when asked if Bradley could be a ‘real solution’ at right-back. “Conor is a top player, I like him a lot. His attitude is outstanding, he’s a real fighter.
“And how everybody in the first half was, we were struggling, we were struggling, we lost balls in the wrong moments and it’s really difficult. I would never judge a player after a game like this and tell, ‘OK, he’s obviously not good enough’ or whatever. I know how good they are because I see them every day in training and tonight is an important experience.
“I don’t think any career ever started without these kind of games where you have to struggle, where you have to fight through, where you have to survive – and Conor, especially, did.
“We found a way into the game, had good moments, really good moments and other moments where he knows he can improve and he has to learn. He’s still young. But that’s part of development.”
Klopp hails Bradley resilience
It was certainly a learning curve for Bradley as he made his first start of the season for Liverpool.
By and large, the youngster probably struggled a little more than might have been expected. Union appeared to be targeting the space the Northern Irishman left in behind early on, and they did get their second goal from it.
But as Klopp nicely puts it, Bradley kept on fighting. The young right-back even took that quite literally in the dying seconds when he was perhaps fortunate not to be shown a second yellow card for a shove on one of the hosts’ players.
Nevertheless, the manager will like to see that kind of spirit from his young players.
Despite the slightly dismal nature of the performance as a whole, Bradley is certainly one who’ll feel he learnt plenty from the experience.
On a more practical level, it was also a very welcome 90 minutes in his legs. Having only just made his return from a lengthy spell out, the Northern Ireland international is still feeling his way back. It was never going to be perfect.
But like Jurgen, we think we saw enough to suggest that Bradley does have a future at Anfield. He’s a tenacious and scrappy full-back who does have something of a young Andy Robertson about him.
Conor will surely have better days to come in a Liverpool shirt. For now though, it’ll do.
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