Leighton Clarkson reveals huge debt to Neil Critchley for making Aberdeen star's Liverpool dream come true

Leighton Clarkson will always be thankful to Neil Critchley for handing him his Liverpool debut.

It was back in 2019 when Jurgen Klopp’s first-team were competing in the World Club Championship, but they were forced to also fulfil their domestic fixtures and the Reds under-18s and 23s had to put out a patched up team in the Carabao Cup against Aston Villa. Critchley took the game and handed Clarkson his big break but he has warned his former boss that he won’t be paying him back when Aberdeen head to take on his Hearts side on Sunday. Clarkson said: “I know him well and he has got a bit of a bounce out of him. He was 23’s manager and I was in the 18’s.

“He actually gave me my debut for Liverpool in the Carabao Cup against Aston Villa away. It was when the first team went to play in the World Championship. Critch took the U23 side and gave me my debut. I came on. He told me 'just be as calm as possible and take the quality you have and go show it.

“I will always be proud of that moment and he was the person who gave it to me. I have not spoken to while and it will be nice to see him. I know the coaching staff he has brought to Hearts as well as they were all in the Liverpool academy.”

Hearts appointed the former Blackpool and Queen’s Park Rangers boss last month. The Jambos are still in the bottom two as Critchley finds his feet and also juggles their Europa Conference League fixtures, like against Cercle Brugge on Thursday

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“I don’t know if he has changed since I was at Liverpool,” Clarkson admitted. “Obviously when you are at Liverpool you feed off the first team really. So you play how a Klopp team plays and try to filter that down.

"Critch might have tweaked a few things to suit how he wants to play. I’ve not seen