‘In my opinion…’ – Arne Slot reprimands one Liverpool player over what he saw in recent match
Arne Slot was openly critical of one Liverpool player following a perceived error over the concession of a goal in a recent Reds match.
Last Wednesday, the Merseysiders rounded off their league phase campaign in the Champions League with a 3-2 defeat away to PSV Eindhoven, a result of no consequence for LFC as they were already assured of a top-two finish in the final standings.
The Dutchman duly availed of the opportunity to rest numerous first-team regulars and hand starts to several players who rarely feature from the first whistle, among them Conor Bradley.
Slot critical of Bradley over PSV’s winner
The Northern Ireland right-back isn’t exactly a fringe player at Liverpool, with 18 appearances this season and 46 in total at Anfield (Transfermarkt), although Slot didn’t spare him from criticism over what ultimately proved to be PSV’s winning goal last week.
The Reds boss told reporters this morning (via Liverpool Echo): “I think we played a good game against PSV with the team who hardly ever played and we did concede three goals. It’s something on the feedback we gave.”
On Bradley specifically, the 46-year-old said: “He wasn’t involved in every goal but he was in one, in my opinion. He wasn’t aggressive enough, which led to the third goal.”
Bradley will have a chance for quick redemption
Slot’s constructive criticism of the young right-back over Ricardo Pepi’s strike in first-half stoppage time isn’t unjustified, with Bradley first allowing Ismael Saibari to turn away from him with ease and then not getting tight enough to Mauro Junior to prevent him crossing to the eventual goalscorer.
The 21-year-old didn’t have his best game for Liverpool in Eindhoven last week, but on the whole he’s proven to be an excellent deputy for Trent Alexander-Arnold since his big breakthrough from the underage ranks a year ago.
The Northern Ireland youngster will have the opportunity to redeem himself in tomorrow night’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Tottenham, with our vice-captain ruled out of that fixture through injury, and he’s also likely to be selected for the FA Cup visit to Plymouth Argyle on Sunday.
The joyous memories of lifting silverware at Wembley just under 12 months ago will no doubt be a huge motivational factor for Bradley to try and repeat the feat in a few weeks’ time, starting with what’ll hopefully be a convincing performance when Spurs visit Anfield on Thursday night.
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