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Michael Owen has hailed the impact of Ryan Gravenberch in the early parts of the season after the Liverpool midfielder was the best player on the pitch during the Merseyside derby.
Gravenberch scored and assisted in the first half against Everton, putting in another exceptional performance. While he started at the base of the Liverpool midfield, he was given a licence to get forward by Arne Slot and duly delivered.
"He is seriously talented," Owen said while working as a pundit on the game. "He can do anything. I love him in the sitting number six role. It just shows you can push him forward, and he can still have a big influence.
"I look around the world at the moment at midfield players and I think, Who is better than him? Who is performing better than him? I don’t see many at all. I think, he is one of the finds of the last season or so.
"Certain circumstances could have meant that he wouldn’t be playing if Liverpool had got Martin Zubimendi, who they wanted.
"He wouldn’t have been playing even when they played Ipswich in the first game of last season. We were all scratching our heads, thinking, 'Who’s going to play as the number six today?'"
Missing out on Zubimendi has proven to be a blessing in disguise for Liverpool, with Gravenberch emerging as an alternative. And the Reds ended up getting him on the cheap for a fee of just $46 million (£35 million).
"I mean, Bayern Munich, they must be scratching their heads, thinking ‘Wow, why have we let him go’ because he could be anything," Owen continued.
"If he were playing for another team now, everybody would be after him as a new number sitting midfield player, thinking £100 million plus."
Owen was not the only person to be left impressed by Gravenberch's performance. Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk also spoke warmly of his fellow countryman at Anfield.
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"Not just this season, he's been playing like that from the moment last season started," he told reporters this weekend. "He's unbelievable. He's very important to the way we play.
"For me personally, you see the amount of times I try to look for him. It benefits him, me and the team. He's in incredible shape. He's in the form of his life. He has to keep going.
"He's still young. The expectation level will always be right up there and that's what he has to try to reach every three or four days. It's a nice challenge."
Liverpool.com says: Gravenberch has been exceptional this season. He was brilliant last year, but seems to have gone up another level. There is a real argument that he is the best in his position in the world right now.
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