Who is Joe Bradshaw? The Liverpool wonderkid who just signed first deal

Joe Bradshaw has signed his first deal with the club, here is everything you need to know about him.

Over the course of the summer, there have been a number of changes at academy level. Liverpool's U18 side and U21 side are both going to have new head-coaches heading into the new season.

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There will also be new faces in the U18s and U21s, as confirmed by the club's latest scholarship intake.

One familiar face will be Joe Bradshaw. The 17-year-old penned his first professional contract with the club as confirmed by his mother on X.

Bradshaw was probably the best player alongside Joshua Sonni-Lambie for a poor U18 side last season. The duo shone in spite of Liverpool's poor performances and it's expected he will progress through the ranks this season, and play at U21 level under Rob Page.

But just who is the young man? And why is he so highly rated?

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Bradshaw is quite tall for his age, and has always been a more developed play. In fact he made his debut almost two years ago for the U18s when he was just 15 years and three months old.

This makes him the fourth youngest Liverpool U18 player in the U18 Premier League. He's also the fifth youngest player to play for the Reds in the UEFA Youth League at just 16 years and fourth months old, beating Harvey Elliott, who was 16 years and five months old when he made his debut.

Bradshaw is a wide player, he's comfortable with both feet and can play on the left and the right. One of his most impressive qualities are his technical skills.

Bradshaw has a really good ball striking technique and he can find the back of the net from inside and outside the penalty area. He averages a 25.6% goal conversion rate for Liverpool's U18 side so far in his career as per Wyscout. He's also capable of scoring from set-pieces.

This makes him a dangerous player anywhere in the final third. His production backs this up as well, Bradshaw has averaged 0.80 goal contributions per 90 minutes in his U18 Premier League career so far - this in a struggling side that finished second from bottom in the league is very impressive.

His technical qualities also translate to Bradshaw's one vs one quality. He's very effective in tight spaces and can get out of tricky situations even when he's surrounded by multiple defenders.

Again the numbers back this up. He's averaging 4.12 dribblers per 90 minutes and he completes 62% of his dribble attempts. These are impressive statistics. For a winger a dribble success rate of around 60% and over, with the same kind of volume of attempts as Bradshaw, is a really solid return.

Bradshaw is quick, too. He can run in behind defences and he will chase down loose balls. He brings a lot of energy to the team whenever he plays and this is something that will be appreciated by Arne Slot at first team level, too.

In terms of improvement, Bradshaw already has a lot of the base qualities you need for a top level winger. What can give him the best chances of succeeding at senior level is if he works on his explosiveness on the ball.

Bradshaw is fast but he's not been able to demonstrate his explosiveness when running with the ball. His technical ability means he doesn't always need to run at high speeds. He can draw defenders in and he's able to get around them with clever feints and body movements.

However, at a higher level, he needs to add that extra bit of speed on the ball to make him succeed in the modern game, where he will need the extra speed on the ball to get around his opponents.

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He's got the ability in his locker and now it's just up to the club's U21 coach Page and Bradshaw himself to bring that out of him as well.

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