Liverpool are on their way back to England after three wins out of three in the United States.
The Reds have had an impressive start to their summer and look almost ready to get back to business in the Premier League.
For Arne Slot, he will surely be able to afford himself as smile at how comfortably Liverpool dispatched both Arsenal and Manchester United in the US.
The head coach and his backroom team also deserve to be pleased with how their ideas have been put into practice by the Liverpool squad on the pitch.
Slowly, it’s becoming a little clearer which members of the group are set to play a big role under Slot, with one surprise contender emerging on Sunday.
Arne Slot makes surprise Ryan Gravenberch decision
Of course, we can’t know for sure exactly which players the boss rates as his starting XI because he’s still yet to even meet a handful of them.
Slot confirmed the full squad will meet up on Tuesday and from there he can finally begin the process of choosing his strongest team.
Until then, we’re having to go off bits and pieces from the pre-season games, but that can still be instructive.
Against Man United, Slot had two more of his senior team to take a look at for the first time: Ibrahima Konate and Ryan Gravenberch.
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While Konate struggled slightly to shake off a poor end to the season, Gravenberch slowly worked his way into the match and delivered an excellent display in one of the two midfield positions.
We had expected that, as it was the 22-year-old’s first game back, he would only feature for 45 minutes against United. But Slot actually kept Gravenberch on for over an hour. The clock showed just 26 minutes left when he was replaced.
Interestingly, Slot chose to take off Curtis Jones in midfield before Gravenberch. To us, this was a clear suggestion that the 45-year-old wants to get his compatriot up to speed as quickly as possible.
And Gravenberch didn’t disappoint. His composure on the ball, athleticism and good technical ability were all on display against United and make him a good fit for this role in the team.
Ryan Gravenberch set for big Liverpool role
With Konate taken off at half-time, it did feel significant that Gravenberch remained on the pitch.
The Netherlands international is at the same stage of his pre-season training as Konate and it isn’t like Slot didn’t have options to come off the bench, either.
As a result, we’d now suggest that the head coach is earmarking Gravenberch for one of the two midfield positions next season.
This would fly in the face of rumours that Slot doesn’t want Gravenberch in the squad and has put him up for sale this summer.
If that were to happen, it would be an almighty mistake from Liverpool. Their No.38 may not have had a standout debut campaign at Anfield, but Gravenberch has ‘unbelievable potential‘ and Slot could be about to help him realise it.
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