Conor Bradley shrugs off increased responsibility with fine Liverpool point

Liverpool's is taking his in stride, drawing parallels to his duties at Anfield.

Michael O'Neill has been deploying Bradley further up the pitch, looking to him as a goal threat, and it's paying off with three goals in his last five international appearances. Ahead of the Nations League match against Belarus, Bradley, who's become Northern Ireland's sole Premier League representative, remains unfazed by the pressure.

He's comfortable attacking for , often finding himself in an advanced winger position due to their possession dominance.

"It's different, but it's similar as well," he explained. "When I play for Liverpool, I'm almost playing as a right winger sometimes because we usually have most of the possession in games so I'm quite high up, trying to create chances for the strikers.

"It's quite similar when I play with Northern Ireland if I'm playing right wing, I'm higher up. But anywhere the manager asks me to play, I'm going to play and give my all."

Bradley is also open to adapting to different positions, including right-wing back, to meet his manager's strategy. With six appearances for Liverpool under Arne Slot and a strong start to the season, Bradley acknowledges that challenges lie ahead post-international break.

"It's been a really good start under the new manager," he enthused. "We've been playing some really good football. We just have to keep it going. We have some tough fixtures coming up and we're looking forward to them."

Bradley, who has been on fire for Northern Ireland, scoring three goals in the last 18 months, insists he doesn't feel burdened by expectations.

"Every footballer enjoys scoring goals," he remarked. "It probably adds a little bit of pressure, but I just try and do the same thing I would do at Liverpool and help the team in any way possible. Even if I haven't scored or assisted and we win 2-0, I'll have the same happiness."

Known for his impressive athleticism, Bradley admits that O'Neill has advised him to conserve his energy on the pitch.

"Yeah, especially the last two games I played for Northern Ireland," he confirmed. "Me and Michael spoke about it with the amount of running and things like that. Sometimes I probably don't need to do as much as what I'm doing. There are some bits of my game we're trying to tweak. I'm not the complete player yet or anything like that and I work hard every day."

Despite a recent setback in Bulgaria, Bradley remains optimistic about Northern Ireland's prospects in Group C3. "Definitely," he stated. "I don't see why not. Obviously we had a little blip on the road in Bulgaria, but there are four games to go and if we can put in some good performances and get the results we want, I'm pretty sure we can still finish top of the group."