Ryan Gravenberch is DOMINATING the £115m star Liverpool wanted instead

Liverpool's defensive midfield saga has been well-documented over the last few years.

The club wanted Jude Bellingham, he said no. The club wanted Aurelien Tchouameni, but he said no. The club wanted Moises Caicedo, but he said no. The club wanted Martin Zubimendi, and he said no. The picture is clear.

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However, once Caicedo declined the club's record-breaking offer of £111m, Liverpool went on to bring in Wataru Endo, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai, the first three of which were capable of filling in as a DM.

Liverpool had revolutionised their entire midfield for about £40m more than their bid for one player.

But after Klopp tried Endo and Mac Allister in the role, it took Arne Slot to come in and give Gravenberch the nod, a move that has since proved to be invaluable to the success of the club this season.

The £34m Dutchman has played in almost every game this season and looks like a brand new player to the one that arrived on Merseyside in 2023 - so much so, that many are calling for Liverpool to call off their search for another defensive-minded player.

In fact, Gravenberch is statistically outperforming the player the Reds originally went for before he was given the move.

Caicedo who?

According to a new stat from WhoScored, Liverpool's No6 is far and away the best midfielder in the Premier League when it comes to interceptions - the traditional metric you look for when identifying a new DM.

Caicedo, who eventually made the move to Chelsea for £115m sits below Gravenberch, with 29 interceptions made this season, despite the London Blues' bright start to this year's domestic campaign.

As such, if Liverpool had bought Caicedo, then theoretically, they may well have had a player more than capable of doing the role sitting on the bench, and the club would have spent the extra £115m for a player who isn't quite up to scratch.

When the two teams met in October, it was clear that Gravenberch was a fair match against Caicedo, as the Reds went on to edge out Chelsea in a 2-1 win at Anfield - a performance where the Dutchman more than put in a shift to continue Arne Slot's bright start to the season.

But to have such a clear metric of Gravenberch's efforts across the whole season so far shows just how well Slot has got him playing. A reminder, this is just Gravenberch's first season being given the responsibility of covering the defence in midfield, and at 23 years old, the potential he has to become an even better player as he develops is huge.

Of course, this is all well said and done after the fact, and the reality is that Liverpool were rejected by Caicedo, as they were by Bellingham, Tchouameni, and Zubimendi, but eventually the club was able to fill in the absence created by Fabinho, and they arguably couldn't have picked a better player - even if we didn't know it at the time.

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