Gary Neville says £34m Liverpool midfielder he wanted Man Utd to sign ‘goes missing’
Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has given his brutal verdict on Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch, despite having previously said that he would love the Red Devils to sign him.
Neville believes that Gravenberch is not a traditional holding midfielder and goes missing for Liverpool.
The Sky Sports pundit does not think that the Liverpool star plays the role of a defensive midfielder like his former Man Utd teammate Roy Keane and Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira used to.
Neville made the comments about Gravenberch while discussing Liverpool’s lack of a quality purely defensive midfielder.
Gary Neville verdict on Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch
The former Man Utd star said about Gravenberch on The Overlap: “Look, he’s a good player, but he goes missing in midfield.
“He’s not like, imagine Roy (Keane) or (Patrick) Vieira in midfield or Caicedo.
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“They are sat there, they are not moving.”
Neville’s latest comments about Gravenberch come after the former Man Utd star claimed that he would love the Red Devils’ co-owners, INEOS, to sign the Netherlands international midfielder, who cost Liverpool £34.2million in transfer fees when they signed him from Bayern Munich in 2023.
In July, Neville said on The Overlap: “It’s harder because [Florian] Wirtz, Isak aren’t jumping out to me, [Hugo] Ekitike yeah, [Dominik] Szoboszlai maybe, [Alexis] Mac Allister hmm. I’d go Gravenberch.
“If you said to me now, I’d take Gravenberch because I think he’s the best of the three midfielders and we need a midfielder desperately.
“The forwards are good but I wouldn’t swap them over [Bryan] Mbeumo, [Matheus] Cunha, Bruno [Fernandes], Amad, I’d don’t think I’d be jumping to take any of them.
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“I think they’ve got potential to do brilliant things but they’ve not proved it yet.”
In May 2025, Neville also compared Gravenberch to Arsenal legend Vieira.
The pundit said: “I’m not going to put him in the same category as a young Patrick Vieira, but he has a little bit of a feel about him in terms of how he plays.”
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said at the time: “Probably the biggest surprise this season is not just him as a player, because a lot of players have an average first season and they grow in the second.
“But he’s playing a completely different role, a holding midfield position that Liverpool have been trying to sign someone in for about two or three seasons.
“I don’t see anyone taking his role, I think he’s nailed that position as Liverpool’s No 6.”
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