While Tyler Morton has settled in perfectly at his temporary “home” at Blackburn, things are proving much tougher for another Liverpool loanee.
A product of the relationship fostered around a behind-closed-doors friendly in 2020, Liverpool and Blackburn have shared recent success in the loan market.
However, while Harvey Elliott was a clear triumph, with seven goals and 11 assists for the Championship side before stepping up to a key role with his parent club, it was a tougher venture for Leighton Clarkson.
Clarkson’s spell at Ewood Park was cut short after playing just seven times in the first half of last season, serving as a warning sign for Morton.
But the 19-year-old – the third player to swap Liverpool for Blackburn on loan in the past three years – has found similar joy to Elliott so far, taking up a key role under Jon Dahl Tomasson.
“I’ve really enjoyed every minute and I’m playing games, which was always the main aim for me,” Morton told the club’s official website.
“Coming here, playing and winning games, it’s been great.
“It’s been like a home from the first minute I walked through the door. That’s not shocked me because that was exactly what I was told from speaking to Harvey and Leighton.
“I’ve been welcomed in from the start and you can see what we have on the pitch as well, sticking together through tough times. It’s been easy to settle in, I’m close to all the lads.
“I’m really glad that I made the decision to join Rovers. I believed in it and it’s going well so far.”
Morton has started 14 of his 19 outings for Blackburn so far, having cemented himself as first-choice pick in a two-man midfield within Tomasson’s 4-2-3-1.
A recent inclusion in the England under-21s squad for the first time, the teenager feels he is “starting to find his groove” and wants to “kick on even more” from now.
But while it is an overwhelming success for Morton at Blackburn, the same cannot be said for left-back Owen Beck, 14 miles away in Bolton.
Beck joined Conor Bradley on loan at Bolton after a deal with Famalicao in Portugal was terminated, but he is yet to start in League One and has only made the bench twice in 11 games.
“When he first came in the building from his experience in Portugal, he wasn’t quite where we wanted him to be,” manager Ian Evatt told the Manchester Evening News.
“But the last two weeks, he’s trained out of his skin and he’s performed well in the half an hour he got against Leeds and he’s progressing all of the time as well.
“It’s not just him. There’s players getting left out all of the time and it just shows you that our squad is a real strong one.”
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