"I'd put both hands in fire for him!" – Jurgen Klopp on glowing recommendation from Pep Lijnders for Liverpool star

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has claimed that his assistant Pepijn Lijnders had informed him about Conor Bradley's talent following his team's recent 4-1 win over Chelsea.

Bradley, 20, produced a brilliant performance in the Reds' Premier League triumph at Anfield this Wednesday (January 31). He scored his first senior goal for the club and laid out two assists for Diogo Jota and Dominik Szoboszlai while deptuzing for Trent Alexander-Arnold.

At a post-match press conference, Klopp was queried if he knew how good the 13-cap Northern Ireland international was prior to Liverpool's latest outing. He replied (h/t Liverpoolfc.com):

"Yeah, I know it for a while because in the left ear is Pep Lijnders and in the right ear is [elite development coach] 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."

Klopp lauded the player, who registered seven goals and six assists in 53 matches on loan at Bolton Wanderers last campaign. He remarked:

"Conor showed up extremely good in pre-season, did extremely well at Bolton. Comes back, looks top in pre-season, wow, and then is out for four-five months, 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."

Lauding a few other Liverpool academy graduates, Klopp concluded:

"Since he is back, it is a joy to watch him. It is all credit to the academy because, how I said, Conor, Jarell [Quansah], James [McConnell], Bobby [Clark] and the others we don't have to mention... it's top. Kaide Gordon coming back after a long, long injury, even longer. Stefan Bajcetic still out, these kind of things."

Conor Bradley opines on first Liverpool goal

During a post-game interaction, Conor Bradley was asked to share his thoughts on bagging his first senior goal for the Merseyside outfit. He replied to TNT Sports (h/t Liverpoolfc.com):

"It's a very proud moment obviously. It's something I've dreamed of for a long time. I just feel like I'm in a dream. It's unbelievable. I'm very happy! I couldn't believe it went in. I just thought, 'I’m going to hit it here' and it went in the bottom corner. I didn't know what to do, I just went into the corner and did a knee slide. It was brilliant!"

So far this season, Bradley has registered one goal and five assists in nine overall outings for Jurgen Klopp's outfit. He has started six games across competitions so far, including two in the Premier League.

With Trent Alexander-Arnold now back from his knee injury, Bradley is expected to be benched for Liverpool's league clash at Arsenal on Sunday (February 4).