Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp has revealed how assistant manager Pep Lijnders would "put both hands in fire" for Conor Bradley after his man-of-the-match display in Wednesday's 4-1 win over Chelsea.
The 20-year-old was ostensibly set to cede his place in the Reds XI to a fit-again Trent Alexander-Arnold, but thanks to his recent impressive displays, Klopp elected to keep the Northern Irish starlet in the starting lineup against the Blues.
Bradley justified Klopp's decision with a scintillating display against Mauricio Pochettino's men and had a hand in three of Liverpool's four goals on the night, scoring his first for the club while setting up two more.
Liverpool's opener through Diogo Jota came from Bradley stealing the ball back from Ben Chilwell and laying off the Portuguese, before he opened his Liverpool account with a crisp strike across Dorde Petrovic's goal.
Before being taken off to a standing ovation, Bradley doubled his assist tally for the night with a pinpoint cross to Dominik Szoboszlai, thereby becoming the youngest Liverpool player to register two assists in a single top-flight game since Alexander-Arnold in 2019.
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Bradley's exceptional display gives Klopp an unenviable selection dilemma ahead of Sunday's crunch clash with Arsenal, and the Reds boss has claimed that it is a "joy" to watch the Northern Ireland international in action.
When asked in his post-game press conference if he knew about Bradley's qualities, Klopp said: "Yeah, I know it for a while because in the left ear is Pep Lijnders and in the right ear is Vitor Matos. I remember Pep sat in my office and said, 'I'd put both hands in fire for him!'
"I loved him from the first day, I didn't need a lot of convincing. The thing is, Conor showed up extremely good in pre-season, did extremely well at Bolton [on loan]. Comes back, looks top in pre-season, wow, and then is out for five months [or] four months, [with] like these kind of issues that only young people have, but thank God then time can sort it.
"At our age it would not get better but in that age group it gets better. Since he is back, it is a joy to watch him. The Academy is doing an incredible job."
While Bradley revelled in a phenomenal performance, a slice of unwanted Premier League history was written by Darwin Nunez, who became the first player on record in the competition to hit the woodwork four times in one match.
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Petrovic tipped two Nunez strikes onto the frame of the goal in the first half, where the Uruguayan also crashed a penalty against the most, and his unwanted quartet was complete when he headed against the bar after the restart.
However, Nunez still ended the night with an assist for Luis Diaz's closing goal, and Klopp affirmed that his lack of ruthlessness is simply "not important" given his overall attacking output, adding: "Why do we speak about Darwin? Obviously because he has so many situations where he missed but it was the first game since we count that a player hit the woodwork four times in a game.
"Now think you are in his boots, how that feels. Missing a penalty, you could see it at half-time, he was really upset with himself. Then missing the header from close range, but then setting up a goal. He stays in the game.
"It is just crazy that he creates that many. Imagine for a second he would take them all... the numbers would be absolutely insane to the extent where you wouldn't understand it anymore, so it's normal. For us it is important because we scored four goals, who cares if we could have scored a fifth or a sixth? It is really not important. The rest will come, definitely."
Liverpool's decimation of Chelsea keeps the Reds five points clear of Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table, although the champions still have a game in hand.
Ben Knapton
