Liverpool are ready to step back into the Champions League limelight, with Bayer Leverkusen making the trip to Anfield as they looked to blemish Arne Slot’s perfect record in Europe’s elite competition.
Led by Anfield legend Xabi Alonso, Leverkusen have not been quite so imperious as last year when they won the domestic double as invincibles, but they still pose a high-level threat and could easily waltz away from Merseyside having leapfrogged the Reds.
With the shock home defeat against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League still the only blot on the copybook, there’s good reason to be excited, but Liverpool must pass this gruelling test, with Real Madrid the next opponent in the Champions League.
Liverpool team news
Slot has no new injury concerns to report after Brighton & Hove Albion were defeated in the top flight on Saturday, with Ibrahima Konate confirmed to be fit after Virgil van Dijk accidentally trod on his wrist.
Alisson Becker remains injured, as do Federico Chiesa, Harvey Elliott and Diogo Jota. None of these key players are expected to return until after the November international break, but Liverpool still have plenty of options to inflict damage on Die Werkself.
It’s no secret through online Reds discourse that Slot has been… averse to rotation since taking the helm, but that’s not to say he doesn’t place a rogue option in the starting line-up from time to time.
Konate should start, for he and the skipper have sculpted a redoubtable defensive axis that can withstand the mightiest of frontlines. However, he might be convinced to make the bold – some might even say brazen – call to drop Trent Alexander-Arnold for Conor Bradley.
Why Liverpool should unleash Conor Bradley
Dropping Alexander-Arnold for such a big game might seem ridiculous at a glance, but there is reasoning behind enforcing such a change.
Firstly, Alexander-Arnold has played a lot of football, starting each of Liverpool’s 13 matches across the Premier League and Champions League campaigns. He is fit as a fiddle, of course, but rotation is important and Aston Villa loom up ahead.
Villa will present a difficult test for Slot’s side, and given Liverpool hold a two-point lead over second-placed Manchester City in the top flight, it’s paramount that three points are placed in the bag.
Matches (starts)
2 (2)
Touches*
65.0
Pass completion
88%
Key passes*
2.0
Dribbles (completed)*
1.5
Ball recoveries*
3.0
Tackles + interceptions*
4.0
Total duels (won)*
6.5
Bradley has also been stuck playing a bit part role this season and must be raring for an opportunity to showcase his skills on the major stage for the Reds, with his only starts under Slot’s guidance arriving in the Carabao Cup, against West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion.
The table highlights the core qualities that were on show across those two cup matches, and though Bradley faced some difficulties against the fleet feet of Brighton mavericks Simon Adingra and Kauro Mitoma, his athleticism and roundedness allowed him to produce a sufficient showing after an injury-hit start to the season.
Across his 11 top-flight appearances last year, Bradley averaged three tackles and 6.3 successful duels per game, as per Sofascore, and clearly carries the defensive acumen to thrive at the top level.
He’s also robust and energetic, operating down a different lane to that of Alexander-Arnold, ranking among the top 5% of full-backs across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for assists per 90, as per FBref, but also among the top 4% for progressive carries, the top 6% for successful take-ons and the top 5% for tackles won per 90.
Bradley has already been likened to Gareth Bale for Northern Ireland, but he could actually channel such quality into the forthcoming fixture against Leverkusen, perhaps using the Bundesliga champions as his own version of Inter Milan, harnessing his electric pace and ball-carrying ability to wreak havoc.
Overlapping movements could see him link up wonderfully with the evergreen Mohamed Salah, who will be desperate to get himself on the scoresheet and extend his record of 49 Champions League goals, joint-11th in the all-time rankings.
Salah is one of the greatest forwards of his generation, and though he’s not the same dribble-mad machine of once before, he’s refined his game and remains a world-class menace aged 32, with nine goals and seven assists across 15 fixtures for Liverpool this term.
Bradley’s pace and propensity to stretch the lines could make him a perfect option for the Egypt international, whose spatial awareness and ability to find space to swing that wand of a left foot is an uncanny thing.
It’s time to hand the Northern Irishman his big chance of the Slot era (so far). He’ll be chomping at the bit, desperate to earn a shot. For a young man who has been full of praise for Alonso, saying that “he was silly” when referencing the Spaniard’s quality back in his playing days.
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There’s also a good chance that Liverpool will need to work round the clock to dismantle the finely wrought Leverkusen system.
Of course, losing Trent’s celestial range of passing is something that Slot will not want, but he can always introduce the England international after the break, ready to pluck the visitors apart, having been tired out by Bradley’s indefatigable engine.
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