80% – This Liverpool Star Made a Huge Statement in 4-0 Victory Over Tottenham Hotspur | OneFootball

Liverpool Youngster Shines as Liverpool Smash Spurs in Carabao Cup Semi-Final

There were so many positives to take from Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday night but as I was leaving Anfield, there was one player that had my attention. Conor Bradley.

The 21-year-old defender has earned a lot of respect as the backup to Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back, but his performances over the past 12-18 months have sent a huge statement. Against Spurs, that was the case once again…

Performance vs Spurs

First of all, it was blatantly obvious that Bradley’s link-up play with both Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah was causing all sorts of problems for Spurs’ left-hand side. The stats from the game only further back that up.

Photo: IMAGO

You can even look at Heung-Min Son’s stats from the game and the limited impact that he managed to have on the game too…

That sort of defensive tenacity can often be missing from Alexander-Arnold’s performances, despite his world-class ability on the ball.

Bradley’s performance last night actually reminded me a lot of what we saw from prime Andy Robertson. Tenacious defensively and creatively a threat with the energy to bomb up and down the wing endlessly, whether that be with his overlapping runs or incredibly dangerous inverted runs, which led to Dominik Szoboszlai’s second-half goal.

Photo: IMAGO

Looking Ahead

As we head into the latter stages of the season and closer towards the summer transfer window, a lot of attention and speculation will be focused on the future of Trent Alexander-Arnold. Now, of course we all want Alexander-Arnold to renew and not for a single moment am I suggesting that it wouldn’t be a big disappointment to lose the vice-captain.

However, Liverpool can take great comfort from the performances and incredibly high potential that Bradley holds. It certainly relieves some of the pressure on Alexander-Arnold’s situation and the potential need to find a world-class replacement, because I genuinely think we already have one forming at the club.

In my opinion, Bradley is the best academy graduate in the past five years, since Curtis Jones scored on his debut against Everton. Some would even argue that he is the greatest since Alexander-Arnold’s debut against Spurs eight years ago. That is how highly I would rate Bradley, and he is only going to improve and mature further from here.