{"id":267156,"date":"2025-11-06T19:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/267156\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T19:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:18:11","slug":"conor-bradley-and-andy-robertson-are-back-and-liverpool-look-better-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/267156\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor Bradley and Andy Robertson are back \u2013 and Liverpool look better for it"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Liverpool\u2019s season got underway in August, Conor Bradley and Andy Robertson were sat watching the action, not taking part in it.<\/p>\n

The full-back roles were instead filled by two new arrivals in the forms of Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, who had both been signed in the Premier League champions\u2019 record-breaking \u00a3450million ($587m) summer spending spree<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bradley was still recovering from the hamstring injury he\u2019d picked up in pre-season, while 31-year-old Robertson had been relegated to bench duty as head coach Arne Slot looked to the future. Both have endured plenty of frustration in their respective battles to get back to where they wanted to be.<\/p>\n

Last weekend\u2019s Premier League win against Aston Villa was the first time they had started a game together since the final match of last season in May. Retained for Tuesday\u2019s Champions League triumph over Real Madrid<\/a>, they repaid the faith shown in them by Slot as they helped to nullify the Spanish league leaders\u2019 array of firepower.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s been an area of glaring vulnerability for Liverpool previously this season suddenly looks like one of strength, with Bradley and Robertson integral to securing back-to-back clean sheets ahead of Sunday\u2019s trip to Manchester City.<\/p>\n

Bradley deservedly basked in the adulation of the Anfield crowd last night. With his right-back predecessor Trent Alexander-Arnold mercilessly booed on his first return since putting plenty of noses out of joint as he moved to Madrid in the summer, the 22-year-old Northern Ireland international delivered the best performance of his career.<\/p>\n

Vinicius Junior went from smelling blood early on to losing heart as Bradley pocketed him. The dangerous Brazilian attacker, who lost possession 20 times across the 90 minutes, didn\u2019t have a single attempt on goal. Aggressive but controlled, Bradley won all three of his tackles and eight of his 13 duels (62 per cent).<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Yet, bizarrely, tournament organiser and European football\u2019s governing body UEFA gave its official man of the match award to Alexis Mac Allister, in recognition of his headed winner \u2014 a decision even the Argentinian\u2019s team-mates could not agree with.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I\u2019d have given it to Conor,\u201d Robertson told in-house media\u2019s LFCTV. \u201cMaybe I\u2019m biased with him being a full-back, but I thought he was outstanding against one of the world\u2019s best. He defended so well against Vinicius.<\/p>\n

\u201cConor is an unbelievable talent, and people forget how young he is. I\u2019m always on at him that it\u2019s about consistency now. He\u2019s always had a performance like that in him but it\u2019s about doing it week in, week out. Now he\u2019s getting a run in the team and you can see the confidence growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was excellent against Real Madrid last season (when Liverpool won 2-0 at Anfield slightly later in the same competition\u2019s league phase) but even better tonight. He\u2019s got everything to be the right full-back for Liverpool for so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earmarked as Alexander-Arnold\u2019s heir apparent and given a new four-year contract in May, Bradley\u2019s coronation was delayed. It was late September, Liverpool\u2019s seventh match in all competitions, before he was deemed fit enough to start a game this season and when he did make the line-up, he struggled for form. He was taken off at half-time away to Chelsea early last month after picking up a needless booking \u2014 one of five yellow cards in his first eight appearances of the campaign, a sign that he was too rash in his play and off the pace.<\/p>\n

The constant chopping and changing at right-back didn\u2019t help Liverpool as results nosedived. With Frimpong having injury issues of his own, Slot filled the void by moving Dominik Szoboszlai there as a makeshift solution. But that, in turn, weakened the midfield.<\/p>\n

Getting Bradley fully up to speed was always going to be key to providing greater stability in the back line, and it was telling after the Villa game that Slot talked about the academy graduate needing to prove he\u2019s robust enough to \u201cplay at this intensity every three days\u201d.\u00a0 Tuesday night was the first time he had started a Champions League game since last season\u2019s league-phase finale in January.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Conor Bradley nullified Vinicius Jr\u2019s threat (Paul Ellis\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Last November, at age 21, Bradley had lit up Liverpool\u2019s previous contest with Madrid, famously dumping Kylian Mbappe on his backside<\/a> with a crunching tackle, but then spent the next six weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring strain. He has made 70 senior appearances for Liverpool since a September 2021 debut but his career has been stop-start due to fitness problems. The debate over whether he can fill Alexander-Arnold\u2019s boots long-term centres more around his durability, because his ability is undeniable.<\/p>\n

\u201cConor was outstanding,\u201d Slot said post-match last night. \u201cThree days after he played 90 minutes against Villa, he again played 90 minutes with incredible intensity against Vinicius.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the players before the game, Madrid have scored 26 goals in La Liga and Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius have 29 goal contributions together (in all competitions). So if you want to have any chance of winning, you should defend your set pieces well because that\u2019s a way teams score, but great individuals can score goals as well, and these two definitely can. Conor defended very well against Vinicius.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as delighting the crowd with his combative approach, Bradley also provided a real outlet for Liverpool as an attacking force with his intelligent underlapping runs and deliveries into the feet of Hugo Ekitike.<\/p>\n

On the other flank, Robertson\u2019s contribution was less eye-catching, but equally important as he linked well with Florian Wirtz, who was given the freedom to drift inside from the left into central areas.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The Scotland captain could have walked away from Anfield last summer. There was interest from Atletico Madrid and Milan, among others, as he considered his options following Liverpool\u2019s \u00a340million signing of fellow left-back Kerkez, 21, from Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

Robertson knew that his status as a mainstay of the team was under serious threat for the first time since he took Alberto Moreno\u2019s spot a few months into his 2017-18 debut season. Rather than give up, he opted to stay and fight. His reward was the vice-captaincy, with Slot acknowledging the huge respect he commands in the dressing room.<\/p>\n

However, what Robertson really wanted was the buzz of being out there and helping to set the tone. At his age, he was never going to simply accept life as a backup and a cheerleader.<\/p>\n

He has had to be patient, with Slot giving Kerkez the opportunity to establish himself. The Hungary international started Liverpool\u2019s opening nine Premier League matches before dropping to the bench against Villa but endured a difficult adaptation period not dissimilar to Robertson\u2019s own experience when he arrived from relegated Hull City.<\/p>\n

Kerkez\u2019s uncertainty contributed to Liverpool\u2019s malaise during a miserable run of six defeats in seven games, and turning back to Robertson over the past week has proved a shrewd move from Slot.<\/p>\n

Madrid had won 13 of their previous 14 games this season, scoring 34 times along the way. But at Anfield yesterday, they were restricted to two shots on target and an xG (expected goals) figure of just 0.45.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many times this season, we have had to score three goals to win games. You can\u2019t keep doing that, it\u2019s not sustainable,\u201d Robertson added. \u201cIt\u2019s about having that control, and I think we\u2019ve got that back over the past two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really pleasing that we built on Saturday. From minute one, we were bang there \u2014 working hard for each other, trying to help your mate out and the quality was there as well. Their \u2019keeper helped to keep the score down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important now that we become consistent. It\u2019s another massive game on Sunday. We\u2019ve put a lot into this week already, but we\u2019ll go there with confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents have been able to expose Liverpool down the flanks too often in the early months of this season.<\/p>\n

With Bradley breaking off the shackles and a resurgent Robertson having the bit between his teeth, they now look a different proposition in those areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Liverpool\u2019s season got underway in August, Conor Bradley and Andy Robertson were sat watching the action, not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,6257,596,1613,1614,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-267156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-champions-league","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-premier-league","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}