Despite Jérémy Doku running riot down the left, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola name-checked Conor Bradley as one of the Liverpool players he was “really, really impressed with” on Sunday afternoon.
The Cityzens inflicted a fourth successive Premier League away defeat upon the champions in Manchester, as Erling Haaland, Nico González and Doku all found the back of the net in a 3–0 home win.
As a result, City moved up into second and are now four points adrift of leaders Arsenal, while Liverpool are eight points back in eighth.
The nature of the victory overseen by Guardiola has led many to believe that City, once the perennial champions, will compete fiercely with the Gunners for the title this season. While they’ve been reliant on Haaland in the goals column so far, Doku has also enjoyed a stellar start to 2025–26, and his dazzling footprints were all over Sunday’s success.
He matched up against Liverpool right-back Conor Bradley after the Northern Irishman made light work of the threat posed by Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior in the week. Here, though, Doku was rampant against Bradley, even if there were times when the defender was able to bite back.
And the young Liverpool full-back has an admirer in Guardiola, who commented post-match (via the Liverpool Echo): “Conor [Bradley], the right back, I was really, really impressed with, Pep Lijnders said he could do everything.”
Lijnders was Jürgen Klopp’s assistant for much of the German’s time on Merseyside, with the pair overseeing Bradley’s first-team breakthrough during the 2023–24 campaign.
“I know the game against [Real] Madrid how good he was against Vinicius. And Jeremy handled it, aggressive with and without the ball. He played an outstanding game,” the City boss added.
Bradley has battled fitness issues at the start of the new season, with none of Slot’s options at right-back cementing themselves as first-choice in the wake of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure. Jeremie Frimpong has also picked up a couple of injuries since joining the club, while Dominik Szoboszlai’s utilisation in the role was merely a stop-gap.
While Sunday’s outing against the brilliant Doku was tough, Bradley, whose character was praised by Sky Sports commentator Gary Neville, has the chance to lock down his position after the November break.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Pep Guardiola Names Liverpool Star That Impressed Him in Man City Rout.
