Liverpool confirm deal to sign ANOTHER Conor Bradley
There's only one Conor Bradley, or is there? Liverpool might be signing someone who is just like him.
With he who must not be named, Trent Alexander-Arnold, leaving the club the right-back position is expected to change at Liverpool.
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Alexander-Arnold was a unique right-back. He's one of a kind in the way he was able to invert into midfield and dictate the rhythm of the play from his position.
There is nobody like him in world football so it makes no sense to replace him by trying to find a needle in a haystack that probably doesn't even exist.
Liverpool are better off moving away from the system that facilitated Alexander-Arnold's ability. The truth is that Arne Slot has already moved on.
His system is more suited towards fast-paced full-backs who bomb up and down the pitch and create width rather than invert.
That's why Liverpool have Conor Bradley and that's why they've signed someone very similar to him as well.
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Liverpool have now confirmed that Jeremie Frimpong is joining the club. Anfield Watch has been exclusively speaking with Frimpong's former teammate, Joe Hardy, who played with him at Manchester City.
Hardy actually played with Conor Bradley as well, at Liverpool's U21 side when he joined the Reds during the early stages of his career.
Therefore he's perfectly qualified to talk about both, and Hardy has revealed that he thinks the two of them are pretty much one and the same and that they are very similar footballers.
"He's very similar to Conor Bradley. He is very similar. They are very much Liverpool fullbacks. Like Andy Robertson on the on the other side. They are very much speed, pace, power. Technically brilliant. Going forward, defending," Hardy said.
"I've played with Conor. Obviously a lot. And they're very similar in how they play."
The numbers back this up as well. When we look at Frimpong's heatmap over the course of his career as a right-back on Wyscout against Alexander-Arnold's and Bradley's, it's the latter that it eerily resembles.
On the top left-corner of the image above you can see Frimpong's heatmap. On the right, is Bradley's and the bottom is Alexander-Arnold.
Hardy believes the two of them battling it out is also going to benefit each other and make them become better players in return.
"It's really exciting to be fair because Conor obviously now has the experience and he's a year in of being in and around the first team properly," Hardy said.
"So those two battling it out for that one position, it's going to be brilliant for the club and for the team. They both know whoever starts, they're gonna have to perform rather than one of them feeling too comfortable.
"Maybe Jeremie is gonna come in and blow everyone away. Who knows? I know how good of a player he is. You know he can be capable of doing that, but Conor Bradley is also a top, top player and he's obviously got that experience and he's obviously kept Trent [Alexander-Arnold] out of the team often last season.
"So things like that, it's gonna be good for the team, good for the club, good for each other to have that, that competition."
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All of this just sounds like music to our ears. Having the two of them in the team is going to be really exciting.
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