Whenever you’re enjoying for Liverpool and a membership legend in John Barnes is evaluating you to a legend of European soccer, you already know you’re doing lots proper.
Ryan Gravenberch has been one of many standout performers within the early weeks of Arne Slot’s reign because the Reds’ head coach, with the Dutchman excelling in a defensive midfield position after an up-and-down first yr at Anfield.
Talking on The Relaxation Is Soccer, ‘Digger’ prompt that what the 22-year-old gives within the quantity 6 position is just like a sure Andrea Pirlo, who excelled in that place for a few years in his AC Milan days.
Barnes gushed: “Enjoying Ryan Gravenberch as a quantity 6 is a bit like enjoying Pirlo in a quantity 6 – a special sort of participant however extra attacking, extra snug on the ball fairly than a hardworking, tough, sturdy defensive midfield participant.”
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After years of watching Fabinho thrive as a destroyer on the base of Liverpool’s midfield, and Wataru Endo providing comparable qualities in that position final time period, Gravenberch is providing one thing totally different from that a part of the pitch below Slot.
The Netherlands worldwide isn’t in the identical sturdy, teak-tough mould as his aforementioned counterparts from Brazil and Japan, however the method during which he receives the ball on the half-turn and gives thrust together with his runs from deep makes him an excellent match within the quantity 6 berth for the Reds’ new-look strategy.
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Clearly the 22-year-old nonetheless has a protracted option to go earlier than cementing the legacy that Pirlo left on European soccer in his glittering enjoying days, however a sequence of sturdy shows for membership and nation in current weeks recommend that our quantity 38 may very well be within the early throes of a really career-changing season.
Gravenberch can nonetheless commendably carry out his duties off the ball – his match averages of two.7 tackles and a couple of.3 interceptions are the best within the Liverpool squad for each merics thus far this time period (WhoScored) – so it seems that he’s putting a really good steadiness in his new-found position at Anfield.
If he can go on to achieve the heights that the Milan and Italy legend loved, the Reds midfielder will change into a really particular participant certainly. We are able to’t wait to see his star ascend even additional over the subsequent few months and years!
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