Conor Bradley reveals Giovanni Leoni’s best qualities as he prepares for Liverpool return

Liverpool supporters are finally set to see more of Giovanni Leoni in the coming weeks, with the Italian ready to end a 13-month spell on the sidelines.

It has been a long road back to full fitness for the young centre-back, who picked up a devastating knee injury on his Reds debut last September.

Leoni is set to return to full training this week, though, with fans excited about his potential partnership with Jeremy Jacquet. The Italian was excellent during the one appearance he has made for Liverpool, but other than that, supporters will barely have seen him play. Luckily, Conor Bradley has, and the Northern Irishman has told fans what he sees as the 19-year-old’s three biggest strengths.

The one thing which nobody can fail to spot about Leoni is that he is a real unit. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches tall, the youngster is a proper centre-back.

This has not escaped the attention of Bradley, who, when asked during a video with AXA to name Leoni’s biggest strengths, included the defender’s actual strength as the main one.

“Three biggest strengths? His strength!” laughed the right-back. “He’s got a really mature head on young shoulders, and then third biggest strength? His defending. I hope so! I’ve seen 60 minutes of it like and it wasn’t bad!”

Leoni paid the compliment back to Bradley, claiming that he loves: “the way that he plays, aggressive, technical. I like the relationship he has with everyone.”

It has been reported that Leoni has spent the entirety of his recovery in Liverpool, instead of heading back to Italy, and the teenager has now confirmed this, revealing that a desire to better his understanding of English was behind this decision.

“I stayed in Liverpool from the first day until now because I wanted to do the rehab here with the physios here,” he said.

“It was good to build my relationships and learning English was the best thing to do in that period. I decided to stay here with my teammates in Liverpool, for practice and everything.”

Having done his opening media duties in Italian, Leoni now appears to be fluent in English. Although missing such a long period was clearly not part of the plan after his arrival from Parma, it may have done him some good in terms of settling in away from the spotlight.

Finally, though, Liverpool fans are set to see the strengths Bradley knows he possesses. It has been a long time coming.

This article first appeared on Rousing the Kop and was syndicated with permission.