Liverpool coach has brought an extra element of quality to the Kop’s midfield.
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Ryan Gravenberch opened score in the match between Liverpool and Union Saint-Gilloise by successfully taking advantage of goalkeeper Anthony Moris’ mistake.
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The Dutch star was recruited by The Kop at the end of the summer transfer period from Bayern Munich. He is expected to bring stability to the midfield, but in the last match, Gravenberch did even better than that.
He received a score of 8 (second highest in the entire team, after Ibrahima Konate) from the Sofa Score statistics page.
During his time on the field, Gravenberch had 67 touches of the ball, creating 2 decisive passes. The former Bayern star always shows the ability to control the ball smoothly and find ways to break the opponent’s defense through long passes (100% accurate). Notably, he had 3 shots on target, quite impressive stats for a midfielder.
In defense, the Dutch star also showed his certainty with 6 winning duels and 2 accurate tackles.
“The feeling of scoring was amazing, it was the easiest goal of my career so far! No problem, a goal is a goal.
“I think being on the field is different. When you give a player minutes to play, they will be confident and complete their tasks,” the 21-year-old star shared after the match.
Gravenberch gives fans the feeling of an all-round midfielder, good at both tackling and making the ball. The image of a player playing like a sleeper, lacking enthusiasm at Bayern has been replaced by a machine that completely sweeps the midfield.
Commenting on the performance of his student, Coach Jurgen Klopp said:
“It’s clear that Gravenberch is a talented player.
“He is enjoying his current performances and it is important to get his confidence back, so everything is really good.
“We thought he could play 90 minutes, we wanted to play Gravenberch the whole match but we saw him drop a bit so that’s why he was substituted.”
Even though he played impressively, Gravenberch still hasn’t won the full trust of his German teacher. Statistics show that, since moving to Anfield, he is acting as a backup plan. At the Premier League front, the former Ajax player was only brought on from the bench in the last 15 minutes of the match.
Maybe coach Klopp wants the 21-year-old star to get used to the new environment, before deciding to give Gravenberch a more difficult task. And the recent impressive performance will be an important stepping stone for the German captain to do that.
With Curtis Jones receiving a suspension in the recent match against Tottenham, it is likely that Gravenberch will appear from the start in the clash with Brighton taking place at the weekend.