Leighton Clarkson has opened up on his time at Aberdeen so far this season - adding that he is in constant contact with Liverpool chiefs over his development.
Clarkson, 21, joined Liverpool as a kid, impressing Reds youth bosses and making his League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League debuts within one year of each other. However, with Liverpool competing on all fronts, it was obvious that Clarkson was not going to get any game time ahead of stars such as Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara - with the playmaker ending up on loan at Aberdeen.
He has impressed in his time at Pittodrie, coming up with goals from distance similar to James Maddison when he first came up as a youngster before going on to impress at Leicester City and for England. But any hopes of Aberdeen fans potentially taking Clarkson in on a permanent deal could well be shot with the Liverpool starlet claiming that his parent club are 'really happy with how he is progressing'.
Clarkson said: "I speak to people at the club and they are really happy with how I am progressing. I speak to someone before the club every game about where I am playing if I am in the team, and I am always speaking to the physios back at Liverpool who just want to check that I am alright.
"But as I have said before, every game up here is tough, and we know how important it is to get back to winning ways. Before the World Cup we were in a great position, but since then we have slipped off a little bit, but we do try and win every game and definitely will again on Saturday."
Clarkson has also had to endure the sacking of Jim Goodwin - something that has never happened to him before, given the extent of Jurgen Klopp's reign at Anfield stretching to almost eight years. But the youngster says that he now knows how to deal with the situation better for future reference, admitting he is learning a lot about the mental side of football in the Granite City.
"When we were going through the bad patch where the manager changed, it was new to me as I hadn't experienced that before.
"But I remember talking to a couple of people, and they told me that it is another experience that you will know how to deal with it better if it happens again further down the line. I have learned a lot up here. Obviously it is a different league and is not what I have been used to having played for Liverpool all my life, so I have only known one way of playing.
"But coming up here with Jim and now Barry I have learned about different ideas and ways of trying to win football games. So everything that we do is helping me to become a better player."
