Dundee United's Luca Stephenson's season ended the same way the last one did, and wherever he finds himself in 2026-27, he'll at least be playing with a preferred position in mind. A hamstring injury suffered in training ahead of Dundee United's April 11 match against Livingston in the Scottish Premiership curtailed the 22-year-old's campaign as scans and opinions from specialists revealed that the damage was worse than first feared. Rewind 12 months and it was also curtains for Stephenson's 2024-25 in mid-April when, in the first of two consecutive season-long loan spells at Tannadice, he underwent surgery for the double hernia he had been playing with for four months. Sitting in the media room at Liverpool's training ground and speaking to The Athletic during the closing weeks of the season, the disappointment of how that second loan has finished is plain to see, but this is also a chance for the versatile defender to reflect on the 67 appearances he made for United across those two seasons. It is rare for players to spend back-to-back seasons on loan at the same club, but Stephenson's impact in Dundee has seen him become a fan favourite and part of the furniture there, and his experiences in Scottish football have helped firm up the position he favours most on the pitch after a nascent career spent never filling the same role for too long. Stephenson came through Liverpool's academy as a midfielder and then, in the 2023-24 season, played as a winger, full-back and central midfielder on loan at Barrow in fourth-tier League Two, but a formative moment arrived when he featured as a right-back in first-team friendlies under Liverpool's then-new head coach Arne Slot in summer 2024. He is yet to make a competitive senior appearance for Liverpool and admits he'd consider a 'new adventure' away from Anfield, a route chosen by some of his academy contemporaries — but he also can't help wondering if a first-team opportunity would have come his way had he not left on loan last August. Stephenson's first season at Dundee United was a huge success. He played 34 times in all competitions, won both the club's and their fans' young player of the season awards and helped secure European qualification via a fourth-place finish. Offers from Championship and League One clubs in England and opportunities abroad followed, but after speaking to manager Jim Goodwin about a return to Tannadice, his mind was made up. 'The best thing about Scotland is the range of games,' Stephenson, who has one year remaining on his current Liverpool contract after signing a new deal on improved terms last summer as reward for his first spell at Dundee United, explains. 'It gives you Celtic and Rangers — and Hearts this year — playing in front of packed crowds at big stadiums. Then the derby against Dundee and how much it means to people. Then you have to go somewhere like Ross County (and their 6,500-capacity stadium in Dingwall, a Highlands market town with a smaller population than that) midweek; again, a different experience.' The Liverpool loanee's focus on returning to Tannadice was to improve his final ball and decision-making in the attacking third. Five goals and five assists in 29 league appearances show that such work on the training ground has paid off. 'I've felt really at home, and it's a credit to the environment the manager and his staff have created,' says Stephenson. 'Trust, in football, is massive. The manager gave me that straight away.'