Liverpool have made it a flawless start to the Premier League season. Five wins from five. Five points clear. Virgil van Dijk’s last-gasp header against Atletico Madrid also secured three points to kick off the Reds’ Champions League campaign.
Now, Liverpool turn their attention to the Carabao Cup, with Arne Slot perhaps carrying a chip on his shoulder after being defeated in last year’s final by Newcastle United.
On Tuesday evening, Anfield welcomes Southampton for a third-round meeting. Saints were relegated from the Premier League last year and sit 19th in the Championship after six matches.
Changes are to be expected, but some might be sad to see Ryan Gravenberch pulled from the limelight given his current form.
Why Slot is dropping Ryan Gravenberch
After Liverpool beat Everton in the Merseyside derby on Saturday, TNT Sports’ Peter Crouch remarked that Gravenberch “has been Liverpool’s best player this season”. The Dutchman scored and assisted for the Reds in the 2-0 win.
He’s in fine fettle, all right, and performing exceptionally in a robust midfield berth, so stylish and secure as he resists the press, recycles the ball and advances it both coolly and intelligently.
In fact, Gravenberch is indispensable, but the 23-year-old played an overload of football last year, and Slot will hope to manage his minutes over the year. With a trip to Crystal Palace forthcoming in the Premier League, it’s right that he should be dropped against Southampton.
“I can tell you now, you won’t be seeing them on Tuesday.” This was what Slot said when asked about a string of first-teamers who have played three lots of 90 minutes over the past week: Mohamed Salah, Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Gravenberch.
While these are all important players, Slot will have a plan, all right, and with Gravenberch set to be sidelined, it might be time for Stefan Bajcetic to return to the field in a Liverpool shirt.
Stand up, Stefan Bajcetic
Bajcetic, 20, hasn’t played for Liverpool for a while, and a multi-loan 2024/25 campaign providing differing levels of success for the centre-midfielder, with a six-month stint at Las Palmas in La Liga reviving his qualities somewhat, starting 12 matches and winning 5.1 duels per game, as per Sofascore.
His ball control and crisp passing proved invaluable for a rudderless Liverpool side who lacked an authoritative presence at the tiller. The experienced members of the engine room had malfunctioned. Change was needed.
Change was what Liverpool got, and though Bajcetic couldn’t quite help his team toward a Champions League-qualifying finish, his skills lifted the outfit back into some semblance of fluency.
Liverpool reporter Leanne Prescott was among those to have been dazzled by the teenage talent’s emergence in Liverpool’s senior set-up, saying, “Staggering that Liverpool look most in control this season when 18-year-old Stefan Bajcetic is playing.”
How things have changed.
Bajcetic featured 11 times in the Premier League across the 2022/23 campaign, indeed proving a shining light throughout a dark spell in Klopp’s tenure.
Injuries limited him the year after, and he featured only once in the top flight in 2023/24, thus drifting into a sort of nothingness unfit for one with such a “special” skillset, as has been said by writer Zubin Daver.
He scored against Aston Villa to announce himself, becoming one of Liverpool’s youngest goalscorers in Premier League history, but his season was cruelly cut short by a shoulder injury, and he has not reappeared since.
Rio Ngumoha
Newcastle
16yrs 361d
Michael Owen
Wimbledon
17yrs 143d
Raheem Sterling
Reading
17yrs 317d
Stefan Bajcetic
Aston Villa
18yrs 65d
Robbie Fowler
Oldham Athletic
18yrs 190d
That said, Bajcetic did impress across the latter half of the 2022/23 term in his homeland, and having returned to Merseyside after a growth spurt and with discernible muscular gains, he might have what it takes to serve as Gravenberch’s understudy across the coming year, with a technical ability that better aligns with Slot’s vision than that of Wataru Endo, industrious as the Japanese may be.
Ahead of the Merseyside derby, Slot had nothing to declare on the injury front. This is a glowing endorsement of Liverpool’s careful coaching.
It is the right call for Gravenberch to sit this one out. The club’s strength in depth suggests a player such as Bajcetic could come into the fray and make his mark.
The Spaniard’s done it before – could this finally be the breakout year that was envisaged for him when under Klopp’s wing?
