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 much of how he wants to play. When we come to the Hearts game we will have done our debrief and see how they play.”
Aberdeen are looking to get back to winning ways after a defeat to St Mirren and a draw at Hibs on Tuesday. Aberdeen have a terrible record at Tynecastle and haven’t won there since 2017. It will be Jimmy Thelin’s first visit and he will look to turn the tide.
Clarkson has never won there and his Tynecastle troubles have been a source of frustration. The Dons star isn’t really sure why it is the case. He admitted: “I don’t really know to be honest. “The atmosphere is really good as is the pitch. I don’t think I’ve won there, which is something that we need to be changing really quickly.
“They are still a really good team. Even when they were near enough down and out when they came up here they still gave us a really tough game. We played against most of those players before and beaten them before at our place, sometimes quite comfortably.”
Thelin has made a strong start with Aberdeen and he has also brought a certain calmness to Pittodrie. Clarkson knows he has been a breath of fresh air. “It can obviously vary with different managers as a lot of them like to shout, do whatever,” Clarkson claimed. “On the pitch you can’t really hear them to be honest when they are shouting.
“He is a calm character and quite detailed in the way he wants to manage. It is a bit different to Scotland than in England. In England you generally get a few more foreign managers. I was at Liverpool for ages and with Klopp all his coaching staff were German.
“The physios were Spanish, German, Italian and Japanese. I have been in and around a multicultural environment whereas up here a lot of people like to stick to their Scottish ways. Hearing that (foreign coach coming in) was a buzz for everyone as it was something different.
“Obviously we didn’t know anything about him and we might have a look or two about how his team plays. But you don’t know anything until he turns up and since the first day everyone has been at it.”