Ryan Gravenberch has revealed an interesting message given to him by Jurgen Klopp in Liverpool training on Wednesday.
The midfielder made his first start for the Reds in Thursday evening’s 3-1 victory over LASK in the Europa League, setting up Luis Diaz’s goal and giving an all-round impressive performance.
The Dutchman spoke to liverpoolfc.com shortly after the game and shared what the manager had told him in Kirkby the day before.
Gravenberch explained: “Yesterday after training [Klopp] came to me and said to me [to] feel free, you know, you can do whatever you want, of course you have to do your things, but he just said feel free and show yourself and the Ryan you are.”
It would appear that Klopp knows he has a special talent on his hands in the 21-year-old, who’s being encouraged to express himself on the pitch rather than pigeon-holed into a specific role for functional purposes.
Gravenberch had precious little scope to showcase his talents at Bayern Munich last season, being handed only three Bundesliga starts (WhoScored), but the likelihood is that he’ll be given a much more extensive platform to prove himself for Liverpool.
Yesterday evening showed why the manager is right to grant such freedom to the midfielder, who was excellent on the ball but also worked hard for his side out of possession.
As per Sofascore, he completed a team-high four key passes and drew four free kicks, proving difficult for LASK to handle. He also won five of his duels and made one tackle, demonstrating that he’s not averse to getting stuck in and winning the ball back.
Gifted players like Gravenberch often just need the right manager to handle them in the right way. He never really had that with either Julian Nagelsmann or Thomas Tuchel at Bayern, but thankfully for us, it already seems to be a very different story under Klopp.
Give the 21-year-old the freedom to paint a masterpiece and he will probably deliver.