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Conor Bradley has been told he’s “missed an opportunity” after Liverpool’s defeat to Chelsea, with Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher in agreement on the right-back.
Bradley was given the nod over Jeremie Frimpong to start at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, but he endured a tough afternoon. Having been booked just after the half-hour mark for hauling down Marc Cucurella, the 22-year-old was left walking a tightrope for the remainder of the first half as Alejandro Garnacho went after him.
With his side 1-0 down after Moises Caicedo’s opener, Arne Slot chose not to run the risk and replaced Bradley with Florian Wirtz at half-time, with Dominik Szoboszlai shifting to right-back, having played there on a few occasions already this season.
It has been a difficult start to the season for Bradley, who many had tipped to become Liverpool’s first-choice on the right of the defense following Trent Alexander-Arnold’s exit.
An injury toward the end of pre-season though saw him miss the opening couple of games of the campaign, and when he has been given the chance to start, he has struggled, with former Manchester United right-back Neville offering a blunt verdict on his performance on Saturday.
“I felt it was a disappointing day for Conor Bradley,” he said on The Gary Neville Podcast.
“I thought Conor Bradley started the game well in the first five minutes on the ball, he did a couple of nice things down here, but I said during the first half, there’s an old adage, it’s Rio Ferdinand’s words to me every time I went out and played in that last eight or nine years: ‘Nothing down our side’.
“I don’t think Liverpool’s right side thinks that way, it hasn’t done for a number of years.
“Conor Bradley had a real chance today, Szoboszlai going back into midfield, Frimpong on the bench. Conor Bradley is a player that I think has got real talent and potential, but he didn’t handle Garnacho well in that first half, Garnacho I thought got the better of him. Not in doing anything amazing, I just thought he had him.
“You can see when someone’s just shading a game, Garnacho was winning on points if you like, and then obviously he gets booked, and he has another little nibble at him at half-time, and then you’re in a situation where he’s sat watching the second half in the dressing room and on the bench, and you are down in the dumps when that happens.
“This is Conor Bradley’s big day today, so he’s missed an opportunity. When you get an opportunity in life, you’ve got to take it, and this was a big opportunity for him. Arne Slot’s saying ‘go on, you’re in, big game, Chelsea away just before the international break, cement your place. I’m putting you in there in front of Frimpong, Szoboszlai’s in midfield, go’, and he’s not done it.”
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Neville’s comments come after Carragher also suggested Bradley was struggling with the demands of becoming Liverpool’s first-choice right-back.
“Bradley still looks like an academy graduate trying to cope with the demands of playing senior football three times a week,” the former Liverpool defender wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
Liverpool.com says: It has been a difficult start to the season for Bradley. Of course, he has still got plenty of time on his hands, but that injury in pre-season couldn't have come at a much worse time, and it feels like he's been trying to play catch-up ever since.
We all know just how good he can be - we've seen it at various times over the last couple of seasons. Hopefully it clicks back into place for him soon.
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