Mohamed Sarah is old, but he is still here and he is still thriving for Liverpool.
This summer, the long-standing talisman turns 33, and there’s a sense that this summer’s overload of offensive signatures has been completed with an eye on the final stretch of Egypt’s Premier League career.
Last season, Sarah took it on to win the Premier League, making Mary under the wing of Arneslot in her first year, when Jurgen Klopp resigned, ran a separate campaign for her age, and posted 34 goals and 23 assists in all competitions.
Now, like Alexander Isaac and Florian Wiltz, they’ve signed British record fees that can shape the Reds’ forefront for years to come.
The Times are changing down Anfield Road, and Sara continues to be the focus of the project, but has scored three goals and already supplied three assists, but the weight of responsibility isn’t that heavy.
And this doesn’t even acknowledge the highlighted early form of Hugo Ekichike running for money to Sarah and Isaac as the club’s main man head.
The beginning of Ekitique’s life in Liverpool
Six games, 4 goals, 1 assist. It’s not a bad way to announce yourself in the English game. Ekitike left Eintracht Frankfurt and signed Liverpool in a deal that rose to £79 million in July.
Isaac came out of the bench for his league debut in the Liverpool shirt in the last Merseyside Derby, but slots have quite a challenge in his hands as the ostensibly second fiddle star continues to move from strength to strength.
Certainly there are worse problems that you should have as a manager.
Against Toffee, Liverpool undoubtedly played the best football of the season in that eventful first half. The 23-year-old showed his natural ease to jump over the line and latch into the ball and lead him to the net.
It was Ryan Gravenberch to thread the assists of Ekitike’s latest goals. The French forward began his season with Fine Fettle, but the man in the middle has been the star of the show for the past five weeks.
Gravenberch is becoming Liverpool’s best player
Martin Zubimendi is almost three months into his Arsenal career. Spanish International joined the Gunners in the summer for £60 million and is considered a coup on the side of Mikel Arteta. He is one of the most silky midfielders out there.
Glenbemberch walked around him at Anfield earlier this month and used sports jargon, which could have been all different.
He did not choose to stay at Real Sociedad. That’s amazing, let’s straighten it. However, Gravenberch rose from the mediocre, forming the engine room core of the beginner slot, which was used sporadically by Klopp in advance.
Only 23, the Dutch has been committed to winning the Premier League last season, and he’s only gotten better since the summer, and it appears that journalist Daniel Story has made a total statement at the football show that he is the “best player in the country” in these opening games that he scored, aided and supported against Everton on Saturday.
Gravenberch wasn’t his crunch, but that’s because he made it for himself to make things happen in the last third, winning seven duels and making five tackles.
The campaign is younger, but Greygunbellch starts out in a phenomenal style and looks even more robust and perfect than last year. He stepped into the spot for Zubimendi and acquired the young players of the 2024/25 season for his performance.
Ryan Gravenberch in Prem under Arne Slot | ||
---|---|---|
Statistics (*per game) | 24/25 | 25/26 |
Match (start) | 37 (37) | 4 (4) |
the goal | 0 | 2 |
assist | 4 | 1 |
touch* | 66.5 | 76.0 |
Pass completed | 89% | 88% |
Key Pass* | 0.7 | 1.5 |
dribble* | 1.0 | 1.5 |
Ball recovery* | 5.2 | 5.3 |
Tackle + Intercept* | 3.5 | 2.8 |
Total Duel (won)* | 5.0 (57%) | 5.3 (55%) |
Statistics via Sofascore |
While he remains pretty much the same in Gravenberch, he now begins to be a little more progressive at the ball, moving forward more frequently, rewarding his ambitions with a rapid increase in Direct Goal’s contributions.
Gravenberch is the heartbeat of this Liverpool team. It remains to be seen whether he was able to maintain this new level over the range of the season, but we won’t bet on it.
Last year, this young, powerful, technically skilled midfielder proved he can raise the game, right? Now he’s just doing it again, marking the latest developments of a journey that hasn’t yet reached the surface. It’s not nearby either.
Liverpool left something that was desired over the opening week of the season, but they won five games out of five in the Premier League and three points in the Champions League opener. There is pervasiveness across the nation that the Reds are a shoe-in for a successful top-flight title defense, but it is too early to declare such a thing with real conviction.
If Liverpool achieves its goal, Gravenberch is at the heart of everything and his continued role in the middle of the park will be truly special. In recent years, the club has been relied on multiple occasions to gain inspiration from Sarah and skipper Virgil van Dick. This is still true.
But Gravenberch actually bets on the fascinating claims of Merseyside’s best player so far, and is a charm in a different way than Sarah.
Either way, this is a pretty good team and Liverpool is about to make it a special year.