Tribal Football

Slot praise for Gravenberch after Liverpool draw with Fulham

Paul Vegas
Slot praise for Gravenberch after Liverpool draw with Fulham
Slot praise for Gravenberch after Liverpool draw with FulhamAction Plus
Liverpool boss Arne Slot says Ryan Gravenberch was again key for their 2-2 draw with Fulham.

With Andrew Robertson sent off early, the Reds twice came from behind to earn the point at Anfield.

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On Gravenberch, Slot said: "Impressed, like everyone who was in the stadium or saw the game. Ryan did outstanding again today. Without the ball, he was mostly in our last line, had to play sometimes against a nine, against wingers who are really fast. And with the ball, he came into the midfield. An outstanding performance from him.

"But if we only highlight him, I don't think I give enough credit to all the other ones that played next to him and around him. I couldn't have asked for more. Dominated the game, more ball possession with 10 men, more chances created – everything what you want. Unfortunately for us, maybe the only chance they got with (us having) 10 men led to a goal – that sometimes happens as well."

On adjusting to playing with ten men, Slot continued: "It always depends on the players you have available, how you are going to react to that. Are you one goal down, are you one goal up? So, that makes a difference. If you are one goal up, you might consider to defend with a lot of players, so then I might have considered to bring immediately a defender in. But if you are one goal down, you see differently. So first you take a look at the tactic board and you think, 'This might be a good option.' That's what we did for five minutes. But then looking at it, it looked better on a tactic board than on the pitch with Cody being a left-back!

"So, we changed that after five minutes and our message cut across I think even better at half-time, where you can tell them even more clearer what we expect from them. And then it helps if you immediately score the 1-1. What doesn't help – we had great momentum – (was) that the game was again delayed for three, four or five minutes immediately after we scored the goal because they were on the ground and that happened a bit too much for us to keep the momentum going. Everybody is saying, 'Yeah, you've played quite a lot of time.' That's true, but the momentum is then like this if every time there's a treatment for an injury."