‘Outstanding’… Gabriel Agbonlahor shares what he thinks Liverpool are about to do with Conor Bradley

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Last night it became clear that Liverpool have found themselves a new young hope from the academy.

Conor Bradley had already been impressing in his early performances for the Reds. But last night he took that to a whole new level. A goal, two assists and a man of the match display against Chelsea. Have a bit of that.

The 20-year-old’s emergence has so far seen praise from all corners. Jurgen Klopp has been delighted by Bradley, and so have just about everyone else.

The latest to add his two pence is TalkSPORT pundit Gabriel Agbonlahor, who thinks that Klopp is about to permanently install Bradley as his new starting right-back.

“Liverpool were very good, the youngster at right-back was man of the match,” says Agbonlahor.

“He was outstanding, he was aggressive, he was good on the ball, he’s quick. They’ve got a star there Liverpool and it wouldn’t surprise me if he stayed there and Trent plays centre-midfield.”

Bradley backed for permanent role

Had Bradley been in near enough any other position in the team, then perhaps this would be an inevitability. He’s certainly shown enough over the last month to suggest he’s capable of starting regularly for Liverpool.

But, given that he’s a right-back, we think the former Bolton loanee is going to have continue to be patient.

Although plenty would like to see Alexander-Arnold move into midfield, we don’t think Klopp is going to do it.

The manager has so far not succumbed to the temptation of moving Trent infield more permanently. He likes him where he is. And although Bradley has done brilliantly, the vice-captain is quite clearly still the main man.

The flip-side to that is that Klopp has never had another genuine option at right-back.

For the past several years, Joe Gomez has been the back-up to Trent. Though he’s capable of playing there, Gomez was never a candidate to take the role permanently. Neither was Neco Williams, despite some early promise.

But from what we’ve seen so far, Bradley could be. That could lead to change of tact.

Of course, caution should be exercised. Williams did look like he could take Trent off at one point, but soon faded away and is now struggling to get into Nottingham Forest’s team.

The same fate could yet befall Bradley, and Klopp won’t want to pressurise the young man too much. So, for the time being, we think Agbonlahor is likely to be proven wrong.