Pep Lijnders thanks Liverpool bosses for delivering Ryan Gravenberch transfer
Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders is no stranger to Dutch football and would have known for some time that Ryan Gravenberch is one of the finest talents to come out of the nation in quite some time.
The 21-year-old earned rave reviews during his time at Ajax Amsterdam, eventually earning himself a move to German champions Bayern Munich in 2022. His time in Germany was a dud as the player struggled for regular game time and his development more or less stalled.
Now at Liverpool, the smile is back and the swagger is slowly yet surely returning. The Dutchman has already found the back of the net twice for Jurgen Klopp’s men and will only get better once he is used to life on Merseyside.
Speaking to the club’s official website, the Dutch tactician expressed his joy at the club sanctioning a move for the 21-year-old. In fact, he goes on to add that Gravenberch is the number eight that the club were seeking. If that truly is the case, we are glad that the decision makers acted swiftly to get the deal over the live.
“He is a complete, complete eight with scoring and with attitude. It is the eight we searched for and the eight we got. We are thankful to our owners and our scouting and everyone who made it happen.”
Gravenberch’s prowess on the ball is visible in the way he drops his shoulders and leaves his marker for dead. The ability to control the ball close in compressed quarters and also weave through opposition defences to push forward are serious traits in the Dutchman’s arsenal. We saw glimpses of it in the buildup to our third goal against Toulouse last week.
Gravenberch’s time at Bayern was puzzling given the lack of playing time afforded to him. Thankfully Jurgen Klopp knows how to bring out the best in players and the 21-year-old today plays with a smile on his face.
Liverpool are well aware of what the midfielder can do and even have first hand experience of seeing it in action. More so, we have been scouting Gravenberch since the time he was in the Eredivisie and will have done the due diligence before sanctioning a move. Lijnders believes we are once again seeing the player who lit the pitch while at Ajax. This only bodes well for us in the long term.
“It is the Ryan Gravenberch of Ajax that we see now.”
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Both our scouts and owners deserve credit for getting the Gravenberch deal over the line. It was close heading into the final hours of the 2023 summer transfer window but thankfully we wrapped up the move. Gravenberch has much to learn and even more to achieve at Liverpool. With every passing day he continues to prove that those at Kirkby were right in their assessment of his talent.
