Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill has admitted he’s excited by Liverpool youngster Conor Bradley and has been told the 20-year-old could be even ‘better’ if he’s deployed in midfield.
The full-back deputised for Trent Alexander-Arnold recently while the Scouser was sidelined with a knee injury and did not disappoint with a number of exceptional performances.
The Castlederg-born talent has five assists and one goal in his last five outings and O’Neill believes the defender will be a ‘huge player’ for his national side moving forward.
“His level of performance coming into the Liverpool team has been fantastic,” O’Neill told BBC Radio 5 Live (via BBC Sport).
“He was injured for the majority of the first half of the season as well so I think we would probably have seen that earlier if that hadn’t been the case.
“We only had him for three games out of 10 in qualification for Euro 2024. He’s going to be a huge player for us going forward.”
When asked if Northern Ireland fans should be excited about the full-back, O’Neill said: “I think so. We see it at Liverpool where he’s playing at right-back.
“There’s people who’ve worked with him when he was very young with Northern Ireland tell me that if I’m brave enough to play him in midfield that I’ll see an even better player. We’ll see what comes of that. I’ll have to be brave.
“But he’s one of a number of young players. He’s in a good group. The likes of Shea Charles, Isaac Price, Callum Marshall, Dale Taylor, Trai Hume.
“We have six or seven players who are nearly starters for us at this moment in time who are under-21 so those lads need time, need games. And Conor’s got a nice group developing (around him). This tournament will give us a chance to add to the experience.”
Bradley missed our defeat to Arsenal last weekend following the recent passing of his father.
Despite only coming into Jurgen Klopp’s side in recent weeks he was a huge miss at the Emirates with the energy and work rate he provides on the right flank.
Our No.84 has been that good in recent weeks that many have called for him to retain his spot in the starting XI and for Alexander-Arnold to be moved into midfield.
The full-back benefitted massively from a loan spell at Bolton last season, where he was named their player of the season, and we look forward to seeing him continue to impress in a red shirt during the remainder of the current campaign.
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Arnold should rather be deployed into the midfield and for the young boy to be deployed as right back because he is an all rounder footballer.