Another assist, “elegant” debut and manager sacked – Liverpool FC Loan Watch

January 30, 2023
Jack Lusby

Despite only five players being in action it was an eventful weekend for Liverpool’s loanees, including a 6-0 thrashing that saw a manager sacked.

As Liverpool reshuffle their loan ranks – with seven players already recalled this month and only one more sent out so far – it was a quiet weekend in terms of game time.

Marcelo Pitaluga, Sepp van den Berg and Paul Glatzel all missed out due to injury, while Vitezslav Jaros and Jack Bearne went unused and Adam Lewis had no game with Newport County already out of the FA Cup.

For those involved, though, it was an eye-catching one.

Tyler Morton played the full 90 minutes as Blackburn were held to a 2-2 draw by Birmingham in the fourth round of the FA Cup, assisting his side’s second goal of the game.

It was, admittedly, a simple assist as he laid it off for Joe Rankin-Costello to do the hard work from the edge of the box, but it brought his tally to four in 31 games.

However, LancsLive‘s Daniel Ainsworth was critical of Morton’s performance, noting a “very poor pass to give [Birmingham midfielder Reda] Khadra the ball for his goal,” which was “a regular issue in this performance.”

Another player enjoying a key role in the Football League is Conor Bradley, and deployed at right wing-back the 19-year-old shone as Bolton won 2-1 at Charlton.

A menace up the right flank, Bradley constantly looked to get on the ball and make things happen, with his overlapping runs a key feature for Ian Evatt’s side.

Up in Scotland, Leighton Clarkson played an hour as Aberdeen were thumped 6-0 by Hibernian, following up their worst-ever defeat to Darvel in the Scottish Cup.

Manager Jim Goodwin was spared the sack after losing to sixth-tier opposition, but was warned by chairman Dave Cromack that “the board and the fans are seeking an immediate response from him and the players.”

Following an unacceptable run of results since the World Cup break, the Club confirms it has parted company with Jim Goodwin and first team assistant manager Lee Sharp with immediate effect.

More to follow. pic.twitter.com/a6iUK2EGgL

— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) January 28, 2023

Unsurprisingly, then, within 20 minutes of full-time in Leith, Goodwin was relieved of his duties.

AberdeenLive‘s Anthony Evans wrote of Clarkson’s four-out-of-10 performance:

“The Liverpool loanee clearly has potential, but often goes hiding in physical battles, and despite one or two decent passes he simply wasn’t involved in the game enough.”

It was a strange debut for Jarell Quansah at Bristol Rovers, starting his first-ever senior game a day before his 20th birthday.

Coming in at centre-back, the youngster suffered a 5-1 defeat away to Morecambe, but according to the Bristol Post‘s Sam Frost, he produced a “showcase of his talent.”

“He was the most poised man amid a scene of blue and white chaos, carrying the ball out of the back so elegantly and showing no shortage of confidence in those moments,” Frost wrote.

“Defensively, too, he dealt with the danger when it was in his orbit.

“It will be hard for [Joey] Barton to take any possibilities from such a dismal collective performance, but he will know from Saturday’s evidence that if he can get the structures right around Quansah, he has a player of quality and potential.”

Anderson Arroyo was the only other Liverpool loanee in action, coming off the bench for the final nine minutes as Alaves beat his former club Mirandes 3-1 in the Spanish second tier.