Ryan Gravenberch: The Reds' Player of the Season So Far

Stats, Comparison and His Future Role

Written on 29/09/2024

While there was considerable disappointment among Liverpool supporters that Martin Zubimendi decided to stay at Real Sociedad in the summer, Arne Slot ‘did not feel sorry’ and worked on how to bring the best out of the current crop of players. While Jurgen Klopp used Wataru Endo and/or Alexis Mac Allister in the defensive midfield position last season, Slot has taken a slightly left-field route - playing Ryan Gravenberch there. Mac Allister partners the Dutch international while Dominik Szoboszlai plays higher up as a number 10 to complete the midfield.

After a fairly subdued first year at Anfield following a late summer move from Bayern Munich, Gravenberch has hit the ground running in his new position at the club. To be fair, the 22-year-old had played in a deeper-lying midfield pivot before when he was at Ajax. The only difference was that he played the Mac Allister role of making box-to-box runs while Edson Alvarez covered the space in front of the centre-backs.

Below, we will look at his numbers for this season, and how they line up against Premier League midfielders so far. Furthermore, I have tabulated his numbers from this season compared to Rodri’s first season at Manchester City and Declan Rice’s first at Arsenal to see where the level is at.

Gravenberch - 2024/25 Premier League Season Dashboards

We start with the Dutchman’s passing and ball carrying numbers.

The 22-year-old is up there in almost all the metrics here. He is touching close to 90% in pass accuracy while making 6+ progressive passes and close to seven passes to the final third per 90. 

He is also not a sitting defensive midfielder who will receive the ball from the centre-backs and make simple passes to players who can carry and do the chance-creation bit. The freedom is there for him to open his legs up and carry the ball forward to open up defences. The way he dazzled past four Wolverhampton Wanderers defenders late in the game on Saturday was impressive. For a tall man (190cm), his body is athletically swift to make those half-turns on the ball look easy on the eye, and most importantly, effective.

Next up, we have his take-on, possession security and defensive numbers.

For context, Gravenberch got dispossessed 1.05 times per 90 in the league last season. In this campaign so far, he has gotten dispossessed only one time in six completed games. When we talk about being technically good and press-resistant on the ball when playing the number six role, these sorts of numbers are elite in every sense of the imagination.