Jurgen Klopp praised Ryan Gravenberch’s impact after the midfielder excelled in his first full game during the club’s victory in the Europa League.
After Liverpool’s rousing comeback against LASK Linz in a match for the Europa League, Jurgen Klopp praised the impact that Ryan Gravenberch had on the team’s performance.
The Reds fell behind early on due to a goal scored by Florian Flecker, but they rallied to earn a 3-1 victory in Austria in the first game of their European campaign thanks to goals scored by Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz, and Mohamed Salah. Gravenberch was an important presence on the field, and he even provided the assist that Diaz needed to score the goal that put Liverpool in ahead for the first time in the game just after the hour mark.
The performance of the Dutch player left Klopp quite impressed, and he acknowledged that the guy’s involvement was “decisive” in the game.
Ryan Gravenberch played an outstanding game despite the extremely challenging conditions, which proved to be the deciding factor for us… Therefore, there were a lot of reasons to be optimistic, and despite my cockiness, I can sаy that I’m pretty pleased with how that game went.”
Gravenberch disclosed that the manager gave a pep talk to the player at a training session prior to the game in order to bolster the player’s confidence. In the talk, the manager encouraged the player to “feel free” so that he could express himself to the fullest extent possible on the field.
“Yesterday after training he came up to me and told me to feel free, you know, you can do whatever you want, of course you have to do your things, but he just said feel free and show yourself and the Ryan you are,” he said. “You can do whatever you want, of course you have to do your things, but he just said feel free and show yourself and the Ryan you are.”
Gravenberch was forced off the field with 15 minutes remaining due to a cramp, but he is optimistic that he will be able to play for the Reds when they take on West Ham in the Premier League at Anfield on Sunday.