Klopp reserves special praise for ‘insane’ Liverpool star; hopes to avoid ‘massive knock’ repeat
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has picked out a number of Ryan Gravenberch’s qualities after he shone in their 2-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise on Thursday night.
The Reds comfortably beat the Belgian side to take control of Group E in the Europa League with Gravenberch and Diogo Jota grabbing the goals.
Like his stay in Bayern Munich, Gravenberch has been limited to substitute appearances in the Premier League but Klopp has now given him three starts for Liverpool in the Europa League and League Cup.
And Klopp was full of praise for the Liverpool midfielder – who signed from Bayern Munich in the summer transfer window – ahead of their match against Brighton on Sunday.
Klopp said: “He is technically incredibly good, the first touch is insane. The speed-up is top-class. Really good shooter, which we saw with the Darwin [Nunez] goal which was disallowed [v Union]; but the ball was a fire ball before. He’s a really good player.
“Yes, he came late and yes, we play slightly different and yes, that needs time to adapt and that’s what we can give him, thank God. And he’s completely happy with it and is in the group and he realised in each training session that he gets treated exactly like all the others if he starts or not, he gets even a [bit] more information in specific moments.
“He can see what the other boys do in similar positions, he can watch it, he learns from it, he’s a smart boy. So, everything goes in the right direction, that’s really, really nice to see. Assists in the other games and now he has his first goal. It’s good – long may it continue. Very important for us.”
Liverpool drew 3-3 at home to Brighton last season but lost both of their away matches at the Amex Stadium as they played the Seagulls in both the Premier League and FA Cup fourth round.
On how he plans to avoid a repeat of the results at Brighton last season, Liverpool boss Klopp added: “Whichever options you have, if you play like you played last year, you will get a massive knock again. That’s how it is. So we should play better and I think we can play better, that’s the first step into the right direction, that’s what we have to make sure.
“Brighton had now I think a few results which didn’t go exactly in their way, but that’s a completely normal situation in a development. They had a lot of changes, lost top players – one of them we got – and still played incredible football.
“We could watch a little bit before the game; we couldn’t see the first half when they were 2-0 down [on Thursday night], I saw the second half when they put Marseille massively under pressure and got a point there.
“So, we expect a really tough game, a really tough game against one of the best sides in the league, best-coached team in the league, I would say, because where they’re coming from and yes, Graham [Potter] did already a lot of stuff and that’s a really smart move from Potter to De Zerbi, to be honest.
“But they made really big steps and super-consistent, different formations, different players, line-ups – wow, in the end you always see Brighton football and I couldn’t respect that more. But I’m really looking forward to the game because we have to put a few things right, because you can look once silly but you should not look a second time silly. It still can happen because they are really good, but we have to do better and we will give it a proper try to do better definitely.”
