It goes to show how far Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch’s Liverpool careers have come that they garnered attention from AC Milan legend Clarence Seedorf after Tuesday’s encounter.
The Merseysiders came back from Christian Pulisic’s opener to secure all three points against the Rossoneri in their opening Champions League clash.
Paul Gorst relayed comments from Arne Slot on X, with the Reds head coach noting that the 48-year-old had specifically asked about his Dutch duo after stellar individual performances at the San Siro.
Slot: “I was standing next to Seedorf and he also asked about Gravenberch and Gakpo. You can pick these two but plenty of others who played well too.”
— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst) September 17, 2024
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Liverpool will next take on Bournemouth in a return to Premier League action at the weekend.
Was Seedorf right to highlight Gakpo and Gravenberch?
There’s a pretty strong argument to be made that the pair were our best performers on the night, so we think the Paramaribo-born former footballer was pretty much on point with his focus.
Gakpo achieved the highest Sofascore rating across both sides on the night with 8.0. The ex-PSV star registered an assist for Dominik Szoboszlai’s goal, two key passes, completed 4/7 dribbles, and won 6/10 ground duels contested.
The stats weren’t quite as supportive for Gravenberch, though the Netherlands international did register seven interceptions and recorded a 90% pass success rate (36/40).
Our No.38 has been in particularly impressive form since the start of the campaign, even excelling against Nottingham Forest despite the ultimately disappointing end result.
With this latest showing in Europe, we may very well have to consider the possibility that our Dutch duo deserve to be held in much higher regard.
It also raises a potentially interesting question of how we intend to bolster the holding midfield position at a later date without restricting our midfielder’s playing minutes.
Food for thought, Richard Hughes!
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