Liverpool manager Arne Slot has praised the improvement of Ryan Gravenberch during the current campaign, but highlighted the next challenge for his compatriot: to maintain consistency after his best run of form in several seasons.
The Dutch midfielder only sporadically featured under Jurgen Klopp and before signing for the Reds at Bayern Munich.
But under Slot he is a first-choice pick in the holding midfield spot, where he has flourished this term thanks to improved defensive efforts and some big showings of pace and power.
Slot has now explained that he expected this improvement arc, and detailed where that has stemmed from – but insists it’s important now to keep performing at the same level.
“Every player here has a lot of quality. It’s up to us to play in the best possible way, then individuals do special things,” Slot said. “It’s about Ryan’s quality but also the amount of times [the centre-backs] play balls through to Ryan where he can turn and play his passes to attackers, that makes it a team performance.
“If you look at all the signings the club has made, most players were aged under 24, 25. You expect players at 22, 23 in this environment to progress.
“So it’s not that big a surprise that if you bring qualities like Gravenberch has, you start to work wth him, have the right programme and he has the teammates he has, that he progresses and that’s what we’re seeing.
“Now it’s up to him to keep the standards he has at this moment. And that’s a challenge because he has to play every three days, he hasn’t played a lot last season. Now he already played more 90s [minute games] than in the last two seasons so it’s interesting to see how he copes with it. Until now he does really well.”
Meanwhile, as those in midfield have thrived this term, there’s still work to do further upfield.
Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz have scored six and five respectively this term from wide areas, but at centre-forward Diogo Jota has three and Darwin Nunez just one, albeit from far fewer starts.
Slot says it’s not only the Uruguayan who has struggled to get into scoring positions and that work is ongoing to improve the connection between the rest of the team and the starting No9, whoever that may be.
“It’s the challenge we as staff always have, to bring the best out of individuals. We find different ways for positioning Darwin than Diogo, they are not the same player,” Slot explained.
“Their teammates also adjust to the player they play with. Yes, he [Nunez] didn’t score [against Bologna] because he was offside, but if we bring him chances he is able to score.
“If I’m being completely honest, even Diogo [hasn’t] – most goals came from wingers. He scored two against West Ham but from the No10 position. So it’s something for us to look at, bringing the striker into positions to score.”