Despite a gruelling club campaign coming to an end, there won’t be too much of a break for a number of Liverpool stars this summer.
Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jarrel Quansah and Curtis Jones were all included in Gareth Southgate’s preliminary 33-man England squad. Ben Doak, the wonderkid winger, may be the joker in Scotland’s Euro 2024 pack.
Ibrahima Konate (France), Diogo Jota (Portugal) and Dominik Szoboszlai (Hungary) will all have major roles to play too, while Cody Gakpo and Virgil van Dijk are key to the Netherlands’ hopes of a run to the tournament’s latter stages.
And then there is Ryan Gravenberch.
A man who, in the opinion of many back home in the Netherlands, is more than a little fortunate to have a seat on the plane to Germany within his grasp.
Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch in Dutch squad for Euro 2024
According to Mike Verweij, one of the most respected reporters in the land, Liverpool’s £34 million signing would have been left in Merseyside had Feyenoord’s Quinten Timber and Atalanta’s Maarten de Roon been fit enough for a place in Ronald Koeman’s roster.
“If Timber and De Roon had been fit, Gravenberch would lose (his place),” Verweij tells De Telegraaf.
“The fact that Gravenberch is included is remarkable in itself. He has only played 90 minutes twice this season, although he has played in 26 of the 38 Premier League games.”
Gravenberch’s inclusion becomes all the more eye-catching when you consider the former Ajax and Bayern Munich playmaker has not yet featured during Koeman’s second spell in the Oranje hotseat. Each of his four caps for the senior side came before the ex-Barcelona boss’ return in January 2023, Gravenberch also left out of the Under 21 side of late as punishment for rejecting a call-up last year.
Verweij feels that Kenneth Taylor – a rare bright spark in a dark season for Ajax – is another who may feel hard done by being left at home while Gravenberch is included.
“Kenneth Taylor did very poorly in one match for the Dutch national team, but he recovered very well in the second half of the season,” Verweij adds, feeling that the EFL Cup winner may be indebted to so-called ‘big league’ bias.
“(Gravenberch) thanked the moment he made a transfer to Liverpool.”
Should Liverpool change the midfielder’s role?
Despite some bright moments under Jurgen Klopp, the 22-year-old’s debut season in England’s north west was not exactly a stellar one. Gravenberch made more Premier League appearances off the bench than he did in the starting XI, though the arrival of fellow Dutchman Arne Slot as Liverpool’s new head coach could be to his benefit.
Former Dutch international Rafael van der Vaart, meanwhile, believes far more could be eked out of Gravenberch by utilising him not as a box-to-box number eight but as a controlling number six.
“I advise Ryan to opt for a role as a defensive midfielder,” Van Der Vaart tells Voetbal International. “That will not be an easy choice for him, because he can do much more. You can compare him with Nigel de Jong in the past.
“Nigel could do much more than the subservient controller he eventually became. But in that specific role, he reached an absolute top level. Nigel decided he was going to be a pitbull and that’s it.
“Ryan is also very versatile and I recommend him to make a similar choice. In a role like Patrick Vieira once played at Arsenal and France.”
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