Ryan Gravenberch has stated that Jurgen Klopp told him to ‘feel free’ before making his debut for Liverpool.
Gravenberch, 21, was the Reds’ final summer addition, arriving in a £34m deal from Bayern Munich on Deadline Day to complete Klopp’s much-discussed midfield reconstruction.
Gravenberch made a cameo off the bench in the Reds’ triumph against Wolves last Saturday as a late arrival, so supporters had to wait a long to see him in action.
However, the former Ajax midfielder was given his first start in Liverpool’s Europa League opener against LASK in Austria on Thursday evening, and he impressed with an assist in the 3-1 comeback triumph.
Gravenberch informed Liverpoolfc.com after the game that Klopp had given him some advise in training before the game.
“Yesterday after training, he came to me and said to me [to] feel free, you know, you can do whatever you want, of course you have to do your things,” he explained, “but he just said feel free and show yourself and the Ryan you are.”
Gravenberch also stated that his overall play was ‘sloppy’ at times.
“We didn’t start well, but we had the mentality and turned it around again, so I was very happy with the game,” he remarked. “It was good for me, but it was also sloppy at times, so I need to work on that, and the rest was fine.”
“I saw the space behind and I saw Harvey [Elliott] got the ball and he played it to me, and I saw Lucho in the corner, so it was a nice cross and he finished it well,” the former Bayern Munich player said of his assist for Luis Diaz’s second-half effort to put Liverpool 2-1 ahead.