Jurgen Klopp hails ‘wonderful kid’ Conor Bradley after he scored and assisted twice in Liverpool’s thrashing of Chelsea as he singles out the youngster for his ‘special’ display at Anfield

Jurgen Klopp hailed new Anfield hero Conor Bradley as a ‘wonderful kid’ after the rookie right back scored his first goal for the club and assisted another as Liverpool thrashed Chelsea 4-1 last night.

It saw the Reds keep up their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table, with Manchester City also winning against Burnley. Diogo Jota opened the scoring before Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz added others for Liverpool in a dominant display.

And Klopp singled out 20-year-old Bradley, who spent last season on loan at League One Bolton but has impressed during Trent Alexander-Arnold’s absence, for praise. ‘What a wonderful kid he is,’ said the German boss.

‘Outstanding finish, the whole game, the contribution, the involvement. It’s a job to play against (Raheem) Sterling, that’s not easy. I’m really happy for him. He’s a very serious young man and that was pretty special I have to say.

‘We saw in the pre-season. He is really doing well. A few weeks ago when I was on holiday a few Bolton fans asked if they could have Bradley back but it’s too late! For us it’s important because we could not have put this string of results together without these kids.’

Bradley was the star of the show as he scored and provided two assists against the Blues 

Klopp added: ‘Attitude is not our problem, that is something we can expect, that is great for the culture. Attitude will not be the issue of this team. This team is full of joy and excitement. The problem is a lot of other teams in the league are exactly the same!’

Mauricio Pochettino thought his side were second best and the Argentine boss said: ‘It’s not time for excuses, the performance was not good. They deserved to win and were better than us. Today I don’t want to talk about (referees) because that is part of football.

‘We didn’t perform in the way that we wanted to, they were better than us from the first action.

This is the sort of game that you need to say, “Well done Liverpool”. We have a chance to match them in the (Carabao Cup) final later this month. If we don’t improve, it’s going to be difficult.’

Meanwhile, West Ham are braced for an approach from Liverpool to poach highly-rated sporting director Tim Steidten after the January transfer window, with the Reds in the market to replace

Klopp called Bradley’s performance ‘special’ and labelled him as a ‘serious young man’

Jorg Schmadtke who will leave this week.

Liverpool have already seen former sporting director Michael Edwards reject the chance to return to the club in a new role, after Mike Gordon, president of owners Fenway Sports Group, floated the idea of him occupying a more senior role to oversee the restructure of the club.

But West Ham’s Steidten has emerged as a leading candidate to occupy the sporting director role, alongside Bournemouth’s Richard Hughes. 

Mail Sport understands no official approaches have been made yet as that would be bad etiquette during the final days of a transfer window.

The Hammers, though, are braced for interest in their lauded transfer chief, who only joined the east London club in the summer but was heralded for replacing Declan Rice with a flurry of shrewd signings including James Ward-Prowse, Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez.