{"id":563696,"date":"2025-11-11T14:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/563696\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T14:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:04:14","slug":"liverpool-debut-shows-budding-northern-ireland-star-is-on-the-right-track-claims-michael-oneill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/563696\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool debut shows budding Northern Ireland star is on the right track, claims Michael O\u2019Neill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Morrison is in Tommy Wright\u2019s squad for Thursday\u2019s European Championship qualifier at home to Latvia and next week\u2019s trip to Greece fresh from starting for Arne Slot\u2019s side in last month\u2019s Carabao Cup defeat against Crystal Palace at Anfield.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It was a dream come true for the 19-year-old attacker to feature for the senior Liverpool side having impressed this season at youth level, and he will have a chance to build on that on the international scene in the upcoming matches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">O\u2019Neill says he has \u2018high hopes\u2019 for Morrison, who became only the second Liverpool player to feature in a competitive first team fixture for the Reds in the last 70 years. Conor Bradley, now a Premier League winner and regular under Slot, is the other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cIt was good to see Kieran get that opportunity,\u201d said O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cLiverpool played a lot of younger players in that game (versus Palace) with the schedule that they have and felt that was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cI think it shows progress for Kieran because when you look at any young player&#8217;s development, there&#8217;s always a period where you feel it&#8217;s very difficult to come through at Liverpool and just go into the first team without having some type of loan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cYou look at Conor (Bradley), he obviously spent a full season at Bolton and we&#8217;ve seen other players go through that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cProbably Kieran&#8217;s going to have to go through that process as well, and I think the fact that he&#8217;s got first team minutes under his belt will help and Liverpool will manage that situation well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Northern Ireland senior boss Michael O'Neill has high hopes for highly-rated forward Kieran Morrison\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/b9ae5857-2f7f-4c7e-ba18-be7ac4d56ad0.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_caption1 beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_secondary beltel-66f0fec7_regular beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_marginleft0 beltel-1d70522a_marginright0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop3 beltel-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Northern Ireland senior boss Michael O&#8217;Neill has high hopes for highly-rated forward Kieran Morrison<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Last week, O\u2019Neill outlined his confidence that young Portsmouth striker Makenzie Kirk would come through to the senior international side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Asked if he felt the same about Morrison, the ex-Stoke City boss said: \u201cI think so. Senior international football depends very much on progressing in your club career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cIt just can&#8217;t be because you&#8217;re at a certain club that you get the chance to play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cHe&#8217;s at a club where it&#8217;s very, very difficult to play, so whatever path he takes in terms of a loan and how successful that is will determine his progress.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cI always say to the players we&#8217;re picking players who are playing League One football, so if you&#8217;re playing League One football you come under consideration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cPatrick Kelly (Barnsley) and Jamie McDonnell (on loan at Mansfield from Nottingham Forest) are no better examples of that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cAt this moment in time, Kieran isn&#8217;t. He&#8217;s played in a Cup game for Liverpool, he&#8217;s still only 19 and he\u2019s in the next phase, but I would expect if that progression continues he will come through and hopefully that&#8217;s the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cHe\u2019ll be with Tommy in the 21s this time, he\u2019ll get the opportunity to play and he&#8217;s a player that we&#8217;ve high hopes for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morrison is in Tommy Wright\u2019s squad for Thursday\u2019s European Championship qualifier at home to Latvia and next week\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1040,31133,1144,8538,30649,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-563696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-liverpool-football-club","9":"tag-michael-oneill","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-northern-ireland-football-team","12":"tag-steven-beacom","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115531446899638384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}