Owen Hargreaves was full of praise for one Liverpool player after Saturday’s win over Wolves, although he believes the man in question still has one big point to prove this season.
Amid a near-perfect start to Arne Slot’s reign at Anfield, Ryan Gravenberch has been arguably the pick of the Reds bunch so far, taking to a new-found number 6 role like a duck to water.
The 22-year-old has made light of LFC’s failure to lure defensive midfield target Martin Zubimendi to Merseyside in August, but the TNT Sports pundit feels that for all the Dutchman’s talents, Liverpool still need a specialist in that area of the pitch when their biggest tests come around.
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Speaking about the former Ajax gem in Premier League Productions, Hargreaves said: “He has done brilliantly well, but he is not a defensive midfield player, which is fine because when you are playing teams like this. He’s 190cm, he’s 22 years old. He’s got everything. but he is not a specialist defensive midfield player.
“There is a difference. I think he is a brilliant midfield player, box to box depending on who you play, but I think in a big game, in a one-off game to go and win the Premier League or the Champions League, I think you need a specialist. Liverpool showed that with Fabinho and City showed that with Rodri.
“I still think they will address his position, but credit Gravenberch, he has grabbed his chance and that’s all you need.”
Although Liverpool have had a relatively gentle fixture list so far in terms of the opposition they’ve faced, having had just one league game against a team who finished in the top half last season, Gravenberch has nonetheless done everything asked of him and more up to this point.
He’s gone to both Old Trafford and the San Siro this month and played superbly on both occasions, and while neither Manchester United nor AC Milan are anywhere near the same level as their 1990s versions, he’s still shown that he can thrive against illustrious opposition.
In fact, comparing our number 38 in the early weeks of this term to Rodri last season and Fabinho in our title-winning 2019/20 campaign, the Dutchman has made more tackles, interceptions and blocks per game and recorded superior percentages for tackling and aerial duel success than the other two (FBref).
Between 20 October and 4 December, Liverpool will play six of the Premier League’s current top eight, along with Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen and European kings Real Madrid. That is the period when we’ll find out plenty about the capabilities of Gravenberch and his teammates.
If, after facing each of those teams, he’s still performing to the standards that he’s shown of late, the 22-year-old won’t just have answered the lingering doubts from the likes of Hargreaves – he’d also be putting himself into contention for the PFA Player of the Year stakes.
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