Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray is delighted with the signing of Leighton Clarkson and he's outlined his expectations of the midfielder, who joined on a season long loan earlier this week.
Clarkson, 19, impressed in pre-season for the Reds and now has the opportunity to test himself in the Championship with his boyhood club.
The Liverpool starlet follows in the footsteps of Harvey Elliott, who had a successful loan spell with Rovers last season after he scored seven goals and registered 11 assists in 42 appearances.
“First and foremost, young players need experience and the Championship seems the ideal place for young Premier League footballers to go and mix it and get stuck in to competitive men’s football," Mowbray told The Lancashire Telegraph.
"Particularly when they’re as young as Leighton and Harvey, they’re boys really and at some stage they need to go and test themselves in the physical arena of playing every three days in the Championship.
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“He should fit straight in and let his football do the talking and I don’t think there’s much change to his life even though he’s got a much shorter journey to work every morning.”
Clarkson first broke into the Liverpool's first team in 2019 and was handed his European debut in a Champions League game away to Midtjylland in December last year.
The midfielder also featured in 14 of the Under-23s Premier League 2 fixtures last term, but he's now made the step up in a bid to gain some vital experience before he returns to the Merseyside club at the end of the season.
Mowbray added: "He's a lovely football player, he’s very local and it’s something he’ll have really wanted to do and we were very aware of that.
“Ultimately, we’ll see what impact he makes, he’s a continuity player who plays forward and picks the right pass and he has to come in, work hard on the training ground and get in the team and when his opportunity comes he has to show me that he deserves to be playing week in, week out.
“The more you watch his clips of him playing, the more you think ‘wow’, what a talent.
“He’s a great passer of the ball, sees short and long passes and fights his weight.
“If he can stamp his personality and authority on our team then that will be great for us."
Clarkson started training with Rovers on Monday ahead of confirmation of the loan deal and he's expected to be included in the squad that will face Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night.
