Liverpool moved to sign Martin Zubimendi in the summer before Arne Slot turned to Ryan Gravenberch
Ryan Gravenberch couldn’t have picked a more appropriate venue. At the stadium where Dutch compatriots Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and later Clarence Seedorf cemented their place in the AC Milan annals, so the Liverpool midfielder gave further evidence of his ongoing transformation.
Gravenberch snaffled another man-of-the-match award as the Reds embraced their Champions League return with an impressive 3-1 triumph at the San Siro on Tuesday evening.
Less than 12 months earlier, the 22-year-old was making his first Liverpool start in an attacking midfield role and contributed an assist for Luis Diaz in a 3-1 Europa League win at LASK Linz in Austria.
The arrival of Arne Slot, though, has seen Gravenberch shifted to become part of a double defensive pivot in the engine room alongside Alexis Mac Allister.
While more subtle than the inspired positional changes in the Liverpool past of Ray Kennedy, John Barnes, Jamie Carragher and, more recently, Sadio Mane, it has been sufficient to unlock the potential that both Bayern Munich and the Reds saw in the Ajax academy graduate.
Not that it was anything Slot wasn’t anticipating. “No, I wouldn’t say I was surprised,” says the Reds boss. “I saw him playing at Ajax when he came up into the first team and everybody saw back then what a special talent he was and probably for that reason he went to two amazing clubs, Bayern Munich and Liverpool – and you can only go to these clubs if they see you have a lot of quality.
“Then it is up to us to make sure we get the best out of him and that is not only down to what as a training staff we do – also he is the most important for that.
“But again his team-mates make him better as well. Notice how Virgil (van Dijk) played balls through the lines to him (against Milan) so it is always a team thing behind good individual performances.”
Slot believes the victory at Milan served not only as a pointer to Gravenberch’s growing promise, but also a reminder to Liverpool of what they are capable of achieving after a tough couple of seasons in European competition.
“I think it helps if it is not the first time you have to do this,” says Slot of his fellow Dutchman. “So every day on the training pitch trying to receive balls through the lines, in games he receives balls through the lines.
“That helps your confidence if things go well and it’s what you see at the moment – you see a Ryan who is full of confidence and that comes normally with good performances and trusting your team-mates and knowing that you can do what you have to at that level.
“I think one of the most important things about winning in the San Siro is that the players know – again now, maybe – that after two difficult seasons in Europe – defeats to Napoli, Real Madrid, Atalanta – that we can play against teams like Milan and beat them and really dominate the game.”
Matters, of course, could have been different had Liverpool succeeded in tempting Martin Zubimendi away from Real Sociedad and the mountains of San Sebastian in the summer. Slot, however, doesn’t believe Gravenberch’s impact this season would have been overly hampered by greater competition for places.
“It is not that much of one holding midfielder, it is a bit more two – and one of those two can be a bit more attacking,” said the Liverpool boss. “I think the player you mentioned could have fitted in in one of those two roles and Ryan can fit in both roles like Curtis (Jones) can, Alexis (Mac Allister) can and Wataru (Endo) can.
“If I could have bought him (Zubimendi) then maybe I could have rotated a bit more and you guys (the media) would be a lot more happy about it! But there is no point talking about Zubimendi any more because he stayed with Real Sociedad and we’ve moved on and we are really happy with Ryan.
“But a club like ours should always try to bring in good players who can help the team to win because it is going to be a long season and therefore you need a lot of good players.
“That has been proven in the Premier League if you look at the ones who have won the league in recent years. They have had a very big squad. So I don’t think it would have affected Ryan’s playing time.”
