Jürgen Klopp will leave behind a Liverpool squad filled with talent when he departs this summer for a break from soccer. With experience of being in the Premier League title race to a point this season, there is even more yet to be unlocked.
The man tasked with getting even more out of the team will be Arne Slot, even if that hasn’t been officially announced yet. “I say almost every time: it will be a matter of days,” the 45-year-old said during his latest press conference. “I expect the same now.”
But who will benefit the most when Slot comes in? Partly, the answer will lie in the exact set-up that he uses (not that much different to what Liverpool is used to now under Klopp), but there are also some players who are primed to take the next step.
Klopp admitted on Friday that his only ‘regret’ of the season was not giving more game time to Harvey Elliott. The Reds’ number 19 has only started nine times in the Premier League so far, though he has a good chance of beginning each of the final two matches of the campaign given A) his form and B) Klopp’s comments.
There is a great deal more to come from Elliott, though, who has the skillset required to become Liverpool’s version of Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard. On and off the ball, he has a huge amount of quality and intelligence and he can play in a couple of different positions as well.
For Ryan Gravenberch, there is a similar level of potential still to be unlocked, even though it is less certain at this stage that it will click at Liverpool — more because of the other options available than anything else. Getting regular minutes for the 2002-born midfielder will be difficult but his potential is clear.
There is a slight question mark over where he would fit into the team if Slot is to play with a double-pivot, with the Dutchman very much best deployed into a box-to-box role. In a 4-2-3-1, he would find similar problems that forced him out of Bayern Munich: he isn’t quite suited to the holding roles but there are too many other players to get ahead of in forward areas.
What is undoubted, though, is that Gravenberch has ability. It is far too simplistic to suggest that just because Slot is Dutch, there will be a connection with the new manager, but there are enough reasons there to think that he can find more regular minutes. The raw skills are there without them being all tied together just yet — as you might expect for such a young player.
Jarell Quansah, meanwhile, has played a substantial amount more minutes than anyone — himself included — would have expected heading into the campaign. He has featured 31 times to date (for around 2400 minutes in total) and made himself a key squad player.
Ibrahima Konaté’s injury troubles (and the fact that Joël Matip is set to leave as a free agent) mean that another center-back is still required in the summer transfer window, but Quansah has firmly ensured that there doesn’t need to be two incoming. Next year, he can expect at least as many appearances again.
There will be new players brought to Liverpool in the summer and there are others who can benefit from a change of coach, too, but in Elliott, Gravenberch and Quansah, Slot has three talents ready to take another step under his guidance. Klopp has done the first part of their development with them — now the incoming Liverpool boss can undergo the next.:
