Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch has quietly boosted his goal tally this season, revealing how advice from his father and Arne Slot’s attacking freedom has transformed his game.
Ryan Gravenberch has always played with a quiet confidence. Tall, elegant on the ball, and blessed with the kind of balance that seems to slow the game down around him, he has long been viewed as one of European football’s natural technicians.
But for all the composure in possession and the flashes of flair, there has often been a lingering frustration: where were the goals?
This season, that question is starting to find an answer and, as it turns out, the solution has come not from a manager or a coach, but from home.
The Dutch midfielder has quietly moved into Liverpool’s top four scorers this campaign, a statistic that might surprise even the most attentive of supporters.
His latest came on Saturday night, when he sealed the Premier League champions’ 2-0 victory over Aston Villa with a well-taken effort midway through the second half half.
It was his third of the season already more than the total he managed across the entire 2024/25 campaign, in which he played 49 times without finding the net.
Gravenberch’s form reflects both the team’s balance under Arne Slot and the player’s own growing maturity.
Yet when asked about his improvement in front of goal during Monday’s press conference ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League tie against Real Madrid, the 23-year-old smiled and offered a simpler explanation.
I think I listened to my dad more this season!” he said, laughing. “He always says to me, ‘You have to shoot more, shoot more.’ This season, you see what happens! Also in the game on Saturday against Villa, I shot and it got deflected, so I have to shoot more. That’s it, basically.
“He has watched every game. Obviously I have so many conversations with him about what I can do better and everything. I listen to him a lot, and also this season.”
It is a charmingly old-fashioned tale: a son taking advice from his father, even after reaching the pinnacle of professional sport. But it also offers an insight into Gravenberch’s personality open to guidance, self-aware, and quietly determined to refine the details of his game.
Liverpool’s title triumph last season was built on collective control, but Gravenberch’s personal contribution was more subtle: dependable, disciplined, occasionally subdued. This season, the Dutchman is beginning to impose himself in ways that statistics and his father would appreciate.
Liverpool supporters will hope the goals keep coming, particularly as the champions prepare to face Real Madrid on Tuesday a fixture that rarely passes without drama.
Gravenberch stands as proof that growth in football isn’t always driven by grand reinvention. Sometimes, it comes from a nudge in the right direction and a reminder from home to back yourself. For a player once searching for his spark, it seems he’s finally found it.
