26 Sep 2020 12:32:06
The thing that really impressed me with Grujic the other night wasn’t just the quality of his play, but his intensity. There was a real crispness to his play, not lackadaisical at all, talking to people, communicating when defending corners, he looked pissed off a few times when someone made a mistake or when something went wrong. For someone who is supposedly meant to be leaving, who hasn’t played for us for years and would have every reason to play a bit half arsed when a good few goals up against Lincoln, he really did treat the game with the utmost respect even when it seemed a few others had taken their foot off the gas. No nerves, shyness or hiding at all, really imposed himself on the game and really impressed me, absolute worlds apart from the performances that Keita had been putting in where he just hides. Can definitely see why Klopp is keen on keeping him.

26 Sep 2020 13:01:09
I saw his performance very different. He took a lot of touches and played it backwards or sideways. I felt that he slowed down opportunities to break which then gave time to Lincoln to reset.

I can see his technique and ability is there but I can see why Klopp is hesitant.

Compare how Thiago was always looking to move forward. It felt that Grujic was always looking to play backwards especially in the first half.

I am intending to have a go at him and if he puts a Liverpool shirt on I will support him but I just didn’t recognise the description Woolback gave.

26 Sep 2020 13:48:29
I actually thought grujic looked good. He did sometimes slow the game down but overall, he was impressive. very calm and assured on the ball.

26 Sep 2020 14:27:28
He did look good, but given it was against League One opposition it's hard to judge what his level is based on that. He is highly rated in Germany following his stint there, though.

But we currently have an abundance of midfielders and a need to sell non-HG players, so unless Wijnaldum is leaving (which seems to have gone cold), I think Grujic will go.

26 Sep 2020 20:35:25
G1dgo, are you actually comparing Grujic with IMO, the best CM in the world currently or did I misread that?

27 Sep 2020 08:03:06
Complete useless comparison to make that proves anything to define keita or grujic. Grujic was sitting in the deep role against a lower league side that were so poor and off the pace of matching us that any professional midfield player would look good and controlled. On the other hand keita is used in the most advanced areas of midfield and was competing up against kante and kovacic both playing for their country in the last world cup final and jorginho a 50mil experienced international as opposed to grujic playing a complete different midfield role and facing a side not capable to put us under any pressure.

I'm not bashing grujic at all but we saw chirivella play with the exact same comfort last year, doesn't mean anything really. Keita would have been on top in midfield too against that Lincoln side when the game as a contest was over after the first quarter.

Kai havertz was very good in bundesliga, but since coming to England he only looked like having any quality against a weak Barnsley in the cup. In his 3 PL games you can see that he's struggled to get into games. I'm just not sure that grujic can give us anything that we don't already have. Like emre can was for us I just feel he's got a nice balance of attributes for a midfielder, big, can take powerful strides, get stuck in, is tidy on the ball keeping it simple and can chip in with a handful of goals but no part of his game stands out to me as being able to add anything to improve our midfield. Fabinho tackles better, thiago passes better, wijnaldum more dynamic an agile in narrow midfield spaces. Henderson has a bigger engine and aggression to contanstly press, keita can carry and dribble beyond players while Jones offers a more inventive option in attacking midfield. If we kept grujic and let one of those leave then I think we'd weaken our options of variation.

I'm not an expert on grujic as I've only seen bits and pieces of him over the last 2 seasons so maybe he's added something special to his game since. What does he look best at? Ball winning? Breaking up play? Dominant passing numbers and accurate switching of play? Carrying the ball with direct runs using his strength? Attacking the box late as a threat to score from midfield runs? I always thought he had a decent ability to offer a mix of each but nothing that is of the level that each midfielder playing for a top side has to add to his side.? Anyone have a genuine insight having watched him playing regularly to know his current level?