‘He will be a Liverpool player in the future’ – Jurgen Klopp makes claim about youngster following EFL Cup victory

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Jurgen Klopp has admitted that although he loves Conor Bradley, the decision to play the Liverpool youngster in Wednesday’s EFL Cup victory over Leicester at Anfield ‘didn’t work out that well’.

The Northern Irishman, who was one of three teenagers named in the home side’s starting XI, began the game at right-back but was replaced by Diogo Jota at halftime, with Neco Williams dropping to the full-back position.

“Conor, in that situation, that didn’t work out that well. Even [though] Conor is an incredible talent, I love the boy to bits, he will be a Liverpool player in the future but today in the combination we had to make changes for the second half,” the German boss told the club’s official website (via HITC).

Although the performance may damage the player’s confidence somewhat, the reassurance from his manager that he does have a future at the club will do him the world of good.

He is only 18-years-old and Brendan Rodgers named a full-strength starting XI yesterday, so it was never going to be easy for him.

He didn’t do much wrong, but it was clear that the Reds were not keeping the ball as well as they usually do and there wasn’t the usual attacking threat provided by full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson.

This meant Klopp turned to his substitutes and decided to make a triple-change at the break – the aforementioned Jota was introduced alongside Ibrahima Konata at centre back and James Milner in central midfield.

The changes ensured that the visitors didn’t get as much joy on the counter-attack as they did in the first half.

The youngster should remain positive and see the game as a learning curve – he’ll have plenty of other chances to impress.

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