Ryan Gravenberch has excelled so far this season under Arne Slot playing as Liverpool’s holding midfielder, and even the head coach was surprised at one aspect of his compatriot’s game.
By many accounts, including nearly 75 percent of voters in our player of the match poll, Gravenberch was Liverpool’s standout performer in their 2-1 win against Wolves.
His coach thought he played well, too, with Slot telling Sky Sports: “He’s just very comfortable on the ball and with (Alexis) Mac Allister as well, that helps the team if you want to have a possession-based style of play.
“You want to have the ball; you want to keep it as long as you can.
“It always helps if you have two players that are so comfortable on the ball in the holding midfielder position and the two of them can run as well.”
While Gravenberch showed composure on the ball and glimpses of his supreme ability, it was his defensive work that gained the most plaudits against Wolves.
“So I think if you only look at the things Ryan does with the ball, we don’t do enough justice to his game because he does a really good job without the ball as well,” Slot added.
“To be completely honest, that surprised me even a bit because I know him from the Dutch league.
“But I think at Bayern Munich and Jurgen [Klopp] did a real good job to make him also better without the ball, and that’s what we are taking the benefits of right now.”
The stats tell a similar story to Slot’s eyes, as Gravenberch made six recoveries, three tackles and won all eight of his duels on Saturday, according to Fotmob.
Though the 22-year-old impressed, Liverpool left a lot to be desired from their performance, but Slot was pleased with how the Reds created Ibrahima Konate‘s opener.
The coach said: “What stands out for me is the patience we had because I’ve spoken about this a few times already, sometimes I feel we have to be more patient, especially against a low block team – I’m not saying Wolves were that today but in this moment I think it was a second-phase corner kick.
“We were patient, kept circulating the ball and waiting for the right moment to bring the ball in.
“So it was a good goal but I think after the first 15 to 20 minutes in general, we were much more patient and we controlled the game much better than the first 15 and the last 15 minutes.”
Liverpool will need to be better against the Premier League‘s elite teams but, for now, they can be happy to be taking three points home to Merseyside.
Wolves 1-2 Liverpool
