Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has hailed Ryan Gravenberch as being in the form of his life, highlighting the midfielder’s impact for the Premier League leaders while noting there is still room for improvement in his game.
A year can feel like a lifetime in football. Just last season, Ryan Gravenberch was asked to anchor Liverpool’s midfield, a role that demanded discipline but denied him the freedom to fully express his attacking instincts.
For long spells, he was tasked with shielding the back line, sitting deep, and often feeling, in his own words, like “a marked man” as opposition teams deliberately targeted him in a bid to blunt Liverpool’s rhythm.
The attention was, in its own way, a compliment — a measure of the growing influence he was having on games. Yet it also left him shackled.
This season, the picture looks completely different. Arne Slot has set him free. No longer chained to the role of midfield policeman, Gravenberch has been let loose, and is showing exactly why many at Ajax believed he was the most complete Dutch midfielder of his generation. At 23, he is starting to look every inch the “full package”.
The clearest evidence yet came on Saturday in the 247th Merseyside derby. Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Everton was not without tension, but it was Gravenberch who lit up the contest. He became the youngest Liverpool player in the Premier League era to both score and assist in the same Merseyside derby at 23 years and 127 days.
His 10th-minute strike was all about composure and technique, adjusting his body shape perfectly to hook Mohamed Salah’s looping pass over Jordan Pickford. Later, his vision came to the fore with a perfectly weighted ball that split the Everton defence, allowing Hugo Ekitike to score his fourth goal in seven games.
Liverpool fans were treated to the sight of a midfielder dictating play at both ends of the pitch a destroyer and creator rolled into one.
Few are better placed to assess Gravenberch’s rise than Virgil van Dijk. The Liverpool captain has watched his compatriot’s transformation up close, and he was effusive in his praise after the derby victory.
“Not just this season, he’s been playing like that from the moment last season started,” said Van Dijk. “He’s unbelievable. He’s very important to the way we play. You see the amount of times I try to look for him. It benefits him, me and the team. He’s in incredible shape. He’s in the form of his life. He has to keep going. He’s still young.”
For Van Dijk, the key has been both confidence and opportunity. Gravenberch’s first campaign at Anfield under Jurgen Klopp brought just 21 starts — nine of them in domestic cups. Now, he is integral.
“During his first season here he hardly played either,” the captain added. “Listen, it’s a mix of everything: getting confidence, progressing and improving as a player, playing games at the highest level and knowing your role in the team. I’m very pleased for him because he puts in a lot of hard work to do what he is doing.”
Liverpool paid Bayern Munich £34million for Gravenberch in the summer of 2023, a deal that at the time was viewed as a gamble. He had struggled for regular opportunities in Germany and, after his maiden campaign on Merseyside, some wondered whether he would ever find his true role.
The club had even looked elsewhere, striking an agreement with Real Sociedad’s Martín Zubimendi only for the midfielder to pull out at the 11th hour — a twist that saw him join Arsenal this past summer instead.
That decision inadvertently created an opening. Slot, arriving in the wake of Klopp’s departure, chose to remodel Gravenberch into a number six, building his midfield around the young Dutchman’s versatility. It has proved an inspired move.
His ability to win the ball, carry it through the lines, and then deliver with precision in the final third has added a new dimension to Liverpool’s play. No longer can teams assume the central pivot is merely there to shield and recycle. Instead, Gravenberch has become the player who can change games in an instant.
Liverpool’s victory over Everton carried a familiar sense of jeopardy Idrissa Gueye’s second-half goal turned a comfortable afternoon into another nerve-shredding finale yet the Reds held firm.
“I don’t think you can expect any easy games in the Premier League,” Van Dijk reflected. “It’s about getting over the line. Of course you want to win comfortably but that’s not always easy. Sometimes you have to fight and that’s what we did in the second half.” Said Van Dijk
In many ways, Gravenberch’s evolution symbolises Slot’s early reign at Anfield. There is a clarity to the roles, a willingness to give responsibility to players who might previously have been on the fringes, and above all a recognition that midfield is where Liverpool’s identity must be built.
For Gravenberch, that has meant freedom. Freedom to break forward. Freedom to take risks. Freedom to show he is more than just a holding midfielder.
The results have been striking. Liverpool’s £34million investment suddenly looks like one of the bargains of the Premier League era.
As Van Dijk put it, “The expectation level will always be right up there and that’s what he has to try to reach every three or four days. It’s a nice challenge.”
What once looked like a promising but uncertain signing from Bayern Munich has become one of the cornerstones of a team chasing glory on multiple fronts.
