During the summer, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp redesigned his midfield by bringing in Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru End, and Ryan Gravenberch.
Ryan Gravenberch made his entire Liverpool debut on Thursday night as the Reds launched their Europa League campaign away to LASK after being used as a late substitute in the 3-1 triumph over Wolves the previous weekend.
Jürgen Klopp made 11 changes from the trip to Molineux, starting Gravenberch in the left-sided number eight position in his midfield three with fellow newcomer Wataru End and rookie Harvey Elliott.
Klopp would have been thrilled to have acquired Gravenberch from Bayern for $43 million (£34 million/€40 million) on deadline day, but there were undoubtedly some aspects of this performance that may have irked him.
Gravenberch admitted to being a little sloppy at times while in possession, completing only 23 of his 33 passes (seventy percent) and failed to recover the ball in either of his two dribbling attempts. In the Liverpool ranks, only left-back Kostas Tsimikas (25) lost possession more frequently than the Dutchman (17).
In a three-versus-two situation, he took the ball forward at one point with Darwin Nez to his right and Luis Dáz to his left, but he fluffed his lines instead of putting the ball on a plate for one of the two attackers.
The good news is that by that point, he had already set up Dáz, laying the ball on with a brilliant first-time low cross after sprinting down the right side. Before he ever touched the ball, Gravenberch had clearly studied his surroundings and saw Diaz running, which gave him the opportunity to play the game-winning pass before LASK could react.
Leave a Reply