‘Excellent’ Liverpool star from last season is now a ‘nervous wreck’ under Arne Slot
Liverpool defender Conor Bradley has gone from “excellent” to a “nervous wreck” within a short space of time, according to Micah Richards.
The Reds lost their fourth consecutive match in all competitions on Sunday when arch-rivals Manchester United beat them 2-1 at Anfield.
Liverpool had a nightmare week before the international break which saw them surrender a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League with Arsenal taking advantage.
Losses to Crystal Palace and Chelsea allowed Arsenal to go one point clear before the international break, with the Gunners extending their lead to four points over the weekend, while Liverpool were also defeated by Galatasaray in the Champions League.
Most people expected Man Utd – who had not won back-to-back matches in the Premier League under Ruben Amorim – to lose but a late Harry Maguire header snatched the points for the Red Devils after Cody Gakpo had cancelled out Bryan Mbeumo’s early strike.
Bradley is one of a number of players whose standards have dropped this season with the Northern Ireland international only completing 90 minutes once this season for Liverpool.
Bradley was once again taken off early against Man Utd and former Man City right-back Micah Richards thinks the Liverpool defender “looks like a nervous wreck” this season.
Richards said on The Rest Is Football:Â “Last season when Bradley filled in for Trent (Alexander-Arnold) he was excellent. He was energetic, he could tackle one against one, the Liverpool fans were really buying into what he was doing.
“This season in that Liverpool side he’s a shadow of the player he was. He’s playing within himself at the moment. He needs to get out of his head that he is there to replace Trent, because he can’t, Trent was a one in a million player.
“At the moment he looks like a nervous wreck. When you’ve got a midfielder coming on to replace you at right-back, it shows you have to do more.”
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When asked what he felt went wrong against Man Utd, Liverpool boss Slot told a post-match press conference: “The result. And the fact that we went 1-0 down so early. If you play United, with so many quality players they have – [and] brought in a few new ones this summer – and if they come to us in a low block, playing so many long balls, then the last thing you would want is going 1-0 down.
“Because that gives them even more belief. If you would have told me we are 1-0 down against a United team that played in the style they did, and you would have told me that we would create eight, nine, 10 open chances, then I would have said to you that I don’t think that is possible. But it was possible.
“So, the second thing that went wrong is that from all the chances we got, we only scored one goal.
“I have said it in Holland many times and maybe I’ve said it here as well, it’s almost impossible to win a big game of football – and Liverpool v United is a big game with so many quality players on the pitch – to win it with a negative set-piece balance. We conceded another one and that led to us losing the game.”
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