Conor Bradley reveals Liverpool star inspiring him as Northern Ireland captain

Conor Bradley will skipper Northern Ireland against Bulgaria on Tuesday and says he is taking inspiration from Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk, who is his captain at the Premier League giants

Conor Bradley says Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk is his role model for leading Northern Ireland.

Bradley, 21, will skipper the Irish for the second time against Bulgaria on Tuesday night on only his 21st international appearance and says he is drawing from the example Van Dijk sets at Liverpool. The defensive colossus leads the way every day and Bradley says he is learning from him.

“My captain at the club, Virgil, is quite a role model with the way he conducts himself every day,” said Bradley. “In training, he’s always one of the best players. That’s someone I aspire to be in how he conducts himself every day and how he leads by example. He would probably be one of the main role models for me.”

Bradley’s mum and sister will be Windsor Park to see him captain Northern Ireland in the Nations League Group C3 game and the defender is relishing the opportunity after he wore the skipper’s armband for the first time in Saturday’s behind-closed-doors game against Belarus. “It’ll be a bit more special doing it at home with all the crowd there,” he said.

“It was just a surreal experience on Saturday. I’m just focused on Bulgaria to be honest and we want to beat them and climb above them in the group.”

Bradley says he is learning every day under Arne Slot at Liverpool and claims playing regularly with Northern Ireland when he is often on the bench at Anfield is huge. He looks to fellow full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson for pointers to help his development.

“Everyone knows how much I love coming away, I just really enjoy it,” he said. “It’s a good chance for me to get two 90 minutes under my belt because it’s been sort of limited at club level.

“Obviously I’m still young, I’m not the complete player, I still have to get better at defending, better at going forward. I’m just trying to learn every day off people like Trent and Andy, who’re world-class players. Try to take bits of their games and put them into mine.”

The captaincy is just another milestone in a phenomenal year for Bradley for club and country, but he claims now is not the time to sit back and reflect on his success. “I always try to focus on what’s next,” he said.

“I don’t really like sitting and reflecting and sitting still. I just want to keep going, keep progressing and just keep getting better. So I just try to keep going and keep working hard every day, make sure I do the same things and hopefully I’ll just keep going.”

Bradley may have made just one start under Slot, but he is the first name on Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland teamsheet, starting their last seven games and scoring three goals. He says playing regularly for his country at such a young age has helped him enormously.

“I think it just improves me. Obviously, international football’s different to club football, especially when you go away from home and stuff like that. We have to learn how to keep clean sheets and win games when we go away from home.

“It is different, but I really do enjoy the challenge every time I come away. I relish being able to play two games for my country.”

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