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Liverpool academy product Conor Coady has opened up about his time at Anfield as well as his exit from the Merseyside outfit. The now-Everton defender insisted that the decision to leave his boyhood club wasn't a difficult one.
Although Coady registered 49 appearances during his time with the Reds' Under 21 squad, he struggled to break through to the first team. Over the course of his career with the Reds, the centre-back only managed to feature in two matches for the senior squad in the Premier League.
Coady did enjoy some game time away on loan with Sheffield United though, scoring six goals and creating four assists in 50 appearances across competitions for the club.
When asked about leaving Liverpool, the Englishman said (via the Liverpool Echo):
“I’ll be honest with you. I’ve said this quite a lot of times to different people who’ve asked me. It wasn’t a hard decision. People were like, ‘It must be [so hard] because you’ve been there all your life,’ but it was because I’d had such a good experience going to Sheffield United where I was involved and I was fighting every week."
He added:
“I was never a guaranteed starter [at Liverpool] but I was fighting every single day with the first team, working my socks off to make sure I had a chance to play at the weekend under a fantastic manager [Nigel Clough] who was pushing us every single day. I felt that and I didn’t want to go back to not having that. That’s where I was at when I came back from Sheffield United."
Conor Coady opens up on ex-Liverpool manager Brendan Rogers' impact
Coady further commented on his Anfield exit, claiming that former Reds manager Brendan Rogers played a key role in his decision to leave the club. The England international said:
“You mention it being a big decision. It was, but that was to pick the right club that was right for me. Brendan Rodgers was fantastic at that at the time in terms of how he helped me. But the big decision was picking the right club, not leaving Liverpool because that was something that I wanted to do."
The Reds are currently eighth in the Premier League table and are set to face Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield on October 1. They'll be looking to build on the momentum gained from their Champions League win over Ajax on September 13.
