Arne Slot Reflects On Ryan Gravenberch Midfield Experiment
Gravenberch has been the Premier League’s standout defensive midfielder this season but Slot admits at the start of it they weren’t certain how the move would go.
In Arne Slot’s first season in charge of Liverpool Football Club, there has been no player who has reinvented himself like Ryan Gravenberch. The Dutch international emerged early not just as an answer for the holding midfield role but as arguably the best in that position in English football.
Having played that position at times early in his career in the Netherlands it may not have been an entirely unfamiliar role. Having not played there at Bayern or previously with the Reds, though, it was far from the obvious move—and one Slot says he wasn’t certain would pan out at the start of the year.
“I immediately liked it because he was so comfortable on the ball,” Slot noted of the decision to trial Gravenberch in the six during pre-season. “I immediately felt that would be a good asset to have. Then we had to find out during the first games in the season if he was defensively strong enough.
“But he definitely was and I think now is one of the players with the most interceptions and all these kinds of things. That’s also a team dynamic, because if the front three don’t work enough, it’s hard for a six to win the ball back. But he has all the ingredients to play in that position really well.”
With Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai ahead of him, Liverpool at least arguably had the top midfield group in the Premier League last season, with only some tiring of legs in the second half of the season raising question marks and pointing to a need to recruit depth options for Slot.
Having headed into last off-season with massive question marks at the position—question marks that had the club desperate to sign MartĂn Zubimendi—there are no such question marks heading into the 2025 summer transfer window and Gravenberch looks nailed on as starter for next season.
The only question, then, is what form the depth takes, be it a returning player like loanee Stefan Bajcetic who has impressed with Las Palmas, or if perhaps the signing of a more established player capable of covering multiple positions is made to bolster the squad for Slot ahead of 2025-26.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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