yan Gravenberch had predominantly played in a midfield two or a three during his time at Ajax, the last club where he started regularly, but now, at Liverpool, he’s effectively operating in a four.

With the full-back often shifting inside, Jürgen Klopp effectively uses two defensive midfielders behind two advanced number eights when the Reds have the ball.

Speaking to Liverpool’s official website after his full debut against LASK in the Europa League on Thursday night, the $44m (£37m/€40m) summer signing from Bayern Munich was asked about the differences between his new position and the roles he’s carried out under previous managers.

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“Actually, no,” he countered. “Yesterday after training [Klopp] 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, but he just said feel free and show yourself and the Ryan you are.”

This advice paid off as Gravenberch delivered a strong performance on his first start, providing a superb assist for Luis Díaz’s goal in the second half and drawing more fouls (four) than any of his teammates with his elusive dribbling style.

And the encouraging for Klopp is that he can and will get better. There was a certain element of sloppiness about his display as he failed to complete 30 per cent of his passes and made some questionable decisions on the ball, but those can largely be put down to a lack of match sharpness given that he’d played just 10 Bundesliga minutes before making his move, and only came on in stoppage time against Wolves last weekend.

Beyond that, Gravenberch will inevitably look better as Klopp progressively imparts more information about the nuances of his role on and off the ball. For now, he’s largely letting him be himself on the pitch, even if he still has to do the basics in terms of pressing because Liverpool can’t afford any passengers.

he goal here is probably to restore the player’s confidence after what would have been a damaging spell at Bayern, where he only played 586 league minutes in one-and-a-bit seasons. Klopp has given him the license to take risks and almost rediscover his footballing identity.

There are similarities here with his approach to coaching Díaz in the early months of the Colombian’s Anfield career following his $61m (£50m/€58m) move from Porto in January 2022.

“I thought ‘OK, why shouldn’t we try it then?’, just without five million informations, just let him play,” Klopp said after the winger starred on his debut against Leicester (via This is Anfield). “He watched us, obviously, and we showed him a lot of situations, but it looks natural in a lot of moments.”

This plan delivered instant rewards, with Díaz arguably Liverpool’s stand-out attacker in his first half-season and thriving with the freedom he had been given as Klopp only gradually instilled his philosophy.

In what he will hope is his first full season with the club (Díaz was out from October until April last term through injury), the long-term benefit should become clear too. Already, he’s scored three in his first five starts this season.

It remains to be seen whether Gravenberch is heavily involved in the coming weeks and months, like Díaz was, but crucially, he too is regarded as a natural fit. Indeed, that explains why he’s been a long-standing target for Klopp and the Reds (via The Athletic), going all the way back to his time in the youth ranks at Ajax.