Wake up Richard Hughes, Liverpool have a CODE RED, send for help

Liverpool made a mess of the summer and now they're paying the price. Ryan Gravenberch needs some serious help.

The last three games have been telling for Liverpool. They haven't actually played well in any of them - but still avoided defeat in all.

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That's a brilliant sign of a wonderful team. Liverpool are certainly that. But they're also a team that's buckling under the weight of injuries.

They've had to cope without Diogo Jota and Alisson Becker over the last couple of months. Kostas Tsimikas, Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley are now out until the end of the year. Federico Chiesa has barely played, while Harvey Elliott missed the entire first quarter of the season through injury.

But where things are really starting to feel like a struggle is in midfield. Liverpool actually have no injuries in the middle - the problem there is that they didn't have the numbers to begin with.

And that's something they must fix.

Ryan Gravenberch needs help

Ryan Gravenberch wasn’t supposed to be Liverpool's deepest midfielder this season. That was supposed to be Martin Zubimendi but a deal for the Spaniard fell through.

Liverpool, with zero viable alternatives lined up, went into the season without anyone signed for the position. They decided that Gravenberch could play the role and, as we've all seen, they were right.

The Dutchman has been a revelation and one of Liverpool's best players all season. Only, he now looks like one of Liverpool's most exhausted players.

That was apparent against Newcastle United, where Gravenberch struggled to keep up with the game. Arne Slot substituted him - a rare sight this season.

“Every single game it was almost impossible for me to take him off because he played so well," Slot said after that one. "I was like, ‘If I take him off now, what’s going to happen to the team?’.

“That’s a bit exaggerated but you know what I mean. This game [Newcastle] especially first-half wasn’t his best, same for the team, first 10 minutes as a team, then we started to play better, he as well."

But this is the problem - Liverpool don't have anyone else to play his role. So when Gravenberch is out of the team, things start to fall apart.

And we even saw it when he didn't go off against Fulham. Gravenberch moved to centre-back and played brilliantly, but the team missed his efforts in midfield. Once he moved back there (Slot reverted to a back three to allow for that), Liverpool had so much more control over the game.

The Reds are coping now but our worry is this: what state will Gravenberch be in come the end of the season? Liverpool are asking him to play an incredibly important role every single week - and it's going to exhaust him more and more.

We're already seeing the effects of that but it's a problem that won't fix itself. Liverpool need to sign an alternative - they can't afford to fail again. Richard Hughes must get this one right.

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