Liverpool’s place at the top of the Premier League and Champions League tables naturally indicates that their entire squad is performing at monumental levels.
It’s difficult to disagree. In attack Mo Salah and Luis Diaz started the campaign in mid-season form, supported by the output of Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones amongst others, whilst in defence the usual suspects of Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold have been joined by Ibrahima Konate as true standouts.
The one player that everyone keeps coming back to, still with an air of disbelief, is Ryan Gravenberch. He went from relative obscurity on Liverpool’s bench to arguably the best defensive midfielder in the world in the space of about a month.
Praise has followed him everywhere this season and for good reason. Now, former Liverpool player Steve Nicol is arguing that he is the player of the season so far.
In a discussion on current Premier League Player of the Season on the ESPN FC show, Nicol made a resounding case as others argued for Salah, Van Dijk and Diaz.
“I mean we’re basically looking at a team who looked as though they had absolutely a big hole in the middle of the park that had to be filled… I would argue that without Gravenberch Liverpool might not be top of the league.”
“The fact that you’re actually talking about Gravenberch in the same breath as Mo Salah tells you how good Gravenberch has been. The fact that Mo Salah is doing what he does best but he’s also being equalled in the performance stakes by Gravenberch – there’s no question it has to be Gravenberch.”
“The fact that Mo Salah has been able to get his goals is down to Gravenberch… and the fact that Liverpool and Van Dijk have defended so well is down to Gravenberch.”
Nicol is absolutely correct about this. We have previously reported that Gravenberch’s claim to being the best defensive midfielder in the world stems from the way he operates at a higher level in both defence and attack compared to other world-leading players in the position.
Players that outrank him in any one metric – tackles, tackle rate, interceptions, progressive carries, progressive passes – tend to pale in comparison to him in the rest of the statistics.
He leads the Champions League in ball recoveries, a metric in which he is surrounded by defenders instead of position-mates and is second for progressive carries by defensive midfielders.
He is single-handedly providing everything Liverpool require from the position and it is letting them simply operate at a more effective level than any of the other expected ‘top’ teams in Europe.
Nicol is right when he suggests that Liverpool defend better because of Gravenberch – Van Dijk et. al. often just have to deal with attackers already off-balance due to Gravenberch’s efforts – as well as the team attacking better due to his ability to resist a press and launch the team into space.
He has been a revelation. Long may it continue.
