‘Unbelievable’ - Former Liverpool star praises fellow countryman after £34m signing

Former Liverpool star Dirk Kuyt has praised summer signing Ryan Gravenberch, and is hoping the youngster can rediscover the form that saw him so highly-rated at Ajax.

Liverpool confirmed the acquisition of Gravenberch on deadline day to complete what was their fourth midfield signing of the window.

Wataru Endo, Dominik Szobozlai and Alexis Mac Allister all arrived this summer to compensate for the outgoings of Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner.

The 21-year-old was highly regarded after breaking through into the Ajax first-team as a 18-year-old under Erik ten Hag, earning a strong reputation as one of the best young midfielders in Europe.

That earned him a move to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022, but the move failed to catch fire as he started just three league games and Kuyt is backing the Dutch international to rediscover his form in a Liverpool shirt.

First of all, he’s a very intelligent player,” Liverpool cult hero Kuyt told BettingSites. “He was unbelievable at Ajax. He always managed to play at a very high level at a very young age. He then took the next step at Bayern Munich - which got me very excited as it proves he could play with the best in Europe.

“Unfortunately, he didn’t get the game time he expected there. When I heard the rumours about him going to Liverpool I was very excited. I think he’ll definitely fit into Jurgen’s team and I expect a lot from him.”

“Hopefully he can get back to the level we saw at Ajax,” added Kuyt. “He was unable to do that at Bayern as he didn’t have many games, but I think he’s a player who can run forever and has great quality with his feet.

“Not only can he run forever, but his quality on the ball is amazing. He can pick the ball up from his defenders, but also feed the ball into the strikers. The quality of his runs are amazing, and so is his passing. He’s also very young and he’ll bring a lot of things to the team.”