Why transformed Ryan Gravenberch embodies Liverpool 2.0 under Arne Slot | OneFootball

Jurgen Klopp had a habit of sounding prophetic. Or he had the capacity, whether through coaching and tactical prowess or force of personality, to make some of what he said come true. But, on his way out, he made a prediction with a difference: one he could no longer influence.

“Liverpool 2.0 does not end with me,” he said in May. “It’s just the new Liverpool. It’s just the start. They can make the next steps.” Seven months later, it could have sounded like wishful thinking. Liverpool could have floundered after his exit, sliding down the standings. Or a successor might have broken his team up. The future planning Klopp did with the signings in his last three years may have seemed irrelevant if those players were then sold, dropped or performing poorly.

Instead, Arne Slot is realising Klopp’s words. Liverpool 2.0 will not get Klopp’s second Premier League title, but they may win the club’s second. They will not win the German’s second Champions League, but they may deliver the second with a team he built. “I knew Jurgen left the team in a very good place,” said Slot. He has proved it.

Liverpool 2.0 have given the numbers within it another meaning. They have beaten Real Madrid 2-0 and Manchester City 2-0. They have had 20 games and won 18. The eventual verdict may be that Klopp’s final season, the quadruple challenge that actually delivered a Carabao Cup and a third-place finish, proved the building block the German imagined: just not for him.

Take the midfield that overran City. Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch were all signed in Klopp’s final summer, bought in an overhaul with the future in mind. Liverpool pensioned off Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, the first three of them greats of the German’s era. The men they brought in were then aged 24, 22 and 21. Mac Allister and Szoboszlai made an immediate impact. Gravenberch did not but Slot has reinvented his fellow Dutchman as a high-class holding midfielder.

open image in gallery

Ryan Gravenberch, Caoimhin Kelleher and Andrew Robertson celebrate after Liverpool beat Real Madrid (Action Images via Reuters)

Or look at Slot’s forward line. Klopp’s definitive front three included Sadio Mane, who left in 2022, and Roberto Firmino, who followed a year later. An attacker was signed in three consecutive transfer windows: Luis Diaz, the first of the arrivals, has been the catalyst against Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen. Cody Gakpo, the last arrival, has scored against Real and City in a stellar week.

Once again, it was succession planning. Look, too, at some of the defensive stars of Liverpool’s season. Ibrahima Konate was outstanding in 2021-22, rather more mixed thereafter and out of the team by the end of Klopp’s reign. The Frenchman is injured now but has been a cornerstone for Slot. He and Gravenberch may be the two biggest beneficiaries of the change of manager.

For others, an upward curve has continued. Caoimhin Kelleher and Conor Bradley are the academy products Klopp introduced and integrated. Now they may be the best second-choice goalkeeper and right-back around. Factor in Curtis Jones and Klopp’s long-termism has brought a legacy. He had an epic reign, but he looked to life after it.

open image in gallery

Cody Gakpo celebrates scoring Liverpool’s first goal against Manchester City with Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah (Getty)

For now, it is notable that Liverpool 2.0 has been spliced together with Liverpool 1.0. That may not be the case next season: not with Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah out of contract and potentially leaving and Giorgi Mamardashvili already signed and presumably Alisson’s successor.

Yet at the moment, they are Klopp’s personnel to such an extent that only 18 minutes of Premier League football – from a possible 12,870 – have been played by newcomers: Federico Chiesa’s solitary substitute appearance is an irrelevance.

In Slot’s stunning start, Liverpool may be in a sweet spot: with no guarantee future signings will excel, with Klopp’s charges adapting well to Slot, with their older players showing few signs of ageing and their younger ones improving.

It does prompt the question if one of the architects of their success regrets walking away when he could have enjoyed it. And if one retort is that, wonderful a manager as Klopp was for Liverpool, it does not automatically mean they would be nine points clear if he were still in charge. Another is that he recognised he was tired, that his own levels could have dropped with another year.

Klopp was genuine when he enthused about his new-look team. It would nevertheless have been understandable if he thought they could not reach the same heights as the 2019 Champions League winners and 2020 Premier League winners; until City’s sudden decline, second or third place may have seemed a more realistic destination for this team again.

But Klopp was not the first manager to shock Liverpool with his resignation. He may belong in a tradition, too. Bill Shankly started building a second team in the 1970s. They peaked under Bob Paisley. It bodes well for Slot, another understated replacement for a more charismatic predecessor. And Liverpool 2.0 did not die with Klopp’s departure.