Jurgen Klopp has spoken about Ryan Gravenberch and why he was substituted in their 2-0 Europa League victory over Union Saint-Gilloise.
Klopp revealed he was forced to change his plan for Ryan Gravenberch after the Dutchman scored the first goal for Liverpool.
The summer signing, who had claimed assists in both of his first two starts for the club, opened his account late in the first half with a simple tap-in after Trent Alexander-Arnold’s strike was parried.
It capped off an impressive performance for the former Bayern Munich man as he continues to grow in stature following a difficult season in the Bundesliga.
Klopp was delighted with Gravenberch’s performance against the Belgians as the Reds made it two wins from two in the Europa League group stages. However, the Reds boss admitted that he was forced to change his plan for the 21-year-old, who was withdrawn late on.
“I think it’s really obvious how good he is,” Klopp told reporters. “What a talent he is, he is enjoying the situation, enjoying himself. That’s very important.
“Gets step-by-step all the confidence back, that is really cool to see. He is in the middle of the group, fits really well to the age group of the majority of the squad. That is good. It’s only positive.
“We thought he might be able to play 90. We wanted to give him 90 but then we saw he dropped a little bit and didn’t want to build any risk, so that’s why we brought on Dom (Dominik Szoboszlai) for a few minutes.
“Everything goes in the right direction, that’s really helpful.”
Meanwhile, Klopp has downplayed any fears that Wataru Endo had been withdrawn because of injury against Union.
The Japan international was taken off at half-time, along with Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez, and was spotted with a black eye following a first half collision. However, the German confirmed that all three changes had been pre-planned.
“Yeah, yeah. All three. All three sub were planned,” Klopp said. “If we could do it, that was the idea. If we could do it and nobody else has problems then these three boys would go off.”
