I saw ‘special’ Liverpool player quietly put in a much improved display against Brentford today

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It’s fair to say that it has been a tough couple of months for Ryan Gravenberch at Liverpool.

After arriving from Bayern Munich on deadline day, the 21-year-old has had to learn on the job in the Reds’ midfield. There were some really promising early displays, but he’s found it difficult of late.

This downward spiral culminated in a disappointing showing from the start against Arsenal two weeks ago. Having been trusted on the right of Liverpool’s midfield, cameras caught Jurgen Klopp going berserk at Gravenberch following Bukayo Saka’s opening goal.

Before that, there had already been trouble brewing. The Dutchman was slammed for an ‘awful’ performance in mid-January against Fulham.

So, when Curtis Jones went down and clearly couldn’t continue in the first-half against Brentford today , some would have been worried to see Gravenberch coming on.

But the Netherlands international put in a quietly excellent display. As Jones now looks set for a period out, it was a really encouraging sign from Gravenberch.

Gravenberch improves at Brentford

According to Fotmob, Gravenberch made 31 of his 38 passes. He completed two out of three dribbles, played three passes into the final third and even had three touches in the opposition box.

One of those balls into the Brentford half helped to create Liverpool’s crucial second goal of the day.

It was Gravenberch who took Wataru Endo’s header on the turn and played a neat little ball around the corner to Mohamed Salah.

Salah then found Alexis Mac Allister with an incisive ball and the Argentine did the rest.

Obviously, the goal doesn’t happen without Salah’s superb ball. But it also doesn’t come about without Gravenberch’s close control and vision.

Indeed, the former Ajax youngster showed the kind of composure on the ball that has been sorely missing from him of late.

As Jones looks set for a period out with injury and Dominik Szoboszlai continues to be unavailable, Gravenberch will now be needed. Hopefully this 56-minute display is enough to fill him with confidence for that run.

So far, the No.38 has found it difficult to get a run of games in the team. But if he can now put some games together and build on this, Liverpool might start to see the ‘very special’ player Pep Lijnders described Gravenberch as.

He wasn’t the most eye-catching player today as the Reds hammered Brentford. Nevertheless, Ryan showed enough that he can be trusted to play his part for the remainder of the season.