Northern Ireland boss Ian Baraclough has revealed that Jurgen Klopp sees Liverpool youngster Conor Bradley moving into midfield in years to come.
The 18-year-old has played mostly at right-back during his time with the Reds’ under-18s and under-23s sides.
Bradley also made his senior Liverpool debut at right-back in the recent 3-0 win over Norwich City in the third round of the Carabao Cup.
But Baraclough has now told how Reds boss Klopp views the youngster as a potential future midfielder.
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“Jurgen thinks - and I agree, who am I not to agree with him actually - that Conor could play in a midfield role as he gets older,” he said via Belfast Live.
“He has the skill-set to be a conventional full-back or a wing-back, but he can also play in midfield. A little bit higher up.
“He’s got a great understanding of football and different areas, so that’s a great string to his bow.”
Bradley has won three Northern Ireland caps in recent months after featuring against Malta, Estonia and Switzerland.
And Baraclough believes his national side, who play Switzerland in Geneva on Saturday before travelling to face Bulgaria in Sofia next week, are giving the Reds youngster a pathway.
He said: “I think we are giving Conor a pathway and we’re giving him chances.
“We’re helping bring him on and he was a different player in September. It seemed like he had grown a couple of inches, was stronger, more confident and he was great around the group.”
Before he continued: “I’ve absolutely no worries about him. Everybody makes mistakes and it’s about how you deal with it, how you move on from that.
“You could see the disappointment on his face, the disbelief. He’ll maybe look back at it and think, could he have dealt with it slightly better?
“Could he have been in a better position to negate the threat in behind in the first place? But he moved on and quickly got rid of that.
“I thought he was great during the game and it was brilliant to watch him. To see him growing visibly during the game was superb.
“I spoke to Jurgen in the build-up to our September camp and clearly he has seen things in Conor to give him his debut (for Liverpool).
“We all saw how confident he was in the game and how he dealt with situations which with other people, they might have played on their minds. It’s all part of his education and we’re playing our little part.”
