Tyler Morton has embraced his first loan spell away from Liverpool and his game time has rightly been managed by Blackburn, with his manager aware of the ‘sudden intensity’ shift.
Prior to this season, Morton had played nine times for Jurgen Klopp‘s first team but otherwise was a key member of Liverpool’s academy.
At 20, the need for consistent senior football was apparent and Blackburn have again proved to be a club Liverpool can safely turn to as they look to nurture their young talent.
Morton has started 25 of Blackburn’s 36 Championship games, but in the last six he has come off the bench three times, remained unused twice and started just once.
The return to the XI came in a 2-1 win over Reading on Wednesday, in a performance that saw LancsLive dish out the highest rating to Morton, with an eight-out-of-ten outing.
It was assessed as a “good performance from the Liverpool loanee which will have helped his confidence,” having played a key role in the second goal.
Prior to his confidence-boosting return to the team, manager Jon Dahl Tomasson hailed Morton’s “intelligence” and, what will come as music to Jurgen Klopp‘s ears, explained why he needed a break from the first team.
“He’d never played so many games at this high level, it’s not under-21s football,” Tomasson said, as quoted by Lancashire Telegraph.
“It was needed that rest. You saw that when he played away at Leicester, the first 75 minutes he was excellent and then he got a little bit tired at the end.
“When a young player suddenly plays at this intensity in this great league it costs a lot of energy.
“The intensity is like that all the team during the season and it’s tough.
“There aren’t many players who are robust enough to play all of these games and if you have never tried it before then you are learning on the job in that way.
“He had a great education, he wants to learn and develop but you can see that he’s a very intelligent player coming through at Liverpool.”
With the likes of Curtis Jones, Kaide Gordon, Calvin Ramsay and more recently Stefan Bajcetic having all succumbed to various stress injuries, there’s enough warning for other young players.
It’s shaping up to be an exciting end to the season for Morton and Blackburn, though, with Rovers currently fifth in the Championship with nine games remaining.
And they are just one win away from Wembley, with their FA Cup meeting with Sheffield United on Sunday setting up a possible semi-final tie in April.
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