After excelling in the number six role since Arne Slot arrived, could Ryan Gravenberch be the answer to Liverpool’s prayers in the position?
FOOTBALL is obsessed with number sixes.
The common feeling is that, like your goalkeeper, the better managers get one in and build around them.
Alex Ferguson had Roy Keane, Pep Guardiola has Rodri, Jürgen Klopp bought Fabinho and (to a lesser extent) Mikel Arteta paid a record fee for Declan Rice. Defenders, generic midfielders and forwards come with different skillsets and merely add differing spices to the central stew of your team, but the greats need a solid number six.
In the early 2000s there was even a brief time where Sky referred to it as ‘the Claude Makelele role’ in deference to Jose Mourinho’s choice, to explain it to a grateful nation unused to the intricacies of football formation in a manner that was in no way patronising.
Football loves a six. Even if they’re not actually sixes but just sit a bit deeper than their midfield mates.
Graeme Souness, arguably the greatest exponent in that role – though Jimmy Case used to ‘drop’ too – often speaks of how he spent so much time even deeper, usually between his centre backs so they could push out and protect the space left by their roaming full-backs.
Others, such as Fabinho and Javier Mascherano tended not to stray so far and preferred to put fires out without getting involved in starting them off.
Arne Slot, or at least the Liverpool hierarchy, don’t seem too bothered by the idea of a specialist six. Now that the Martin Zubimendi door is closed, they seem prepared to make do.
As the journalist James Nalton pointed out, the setup when pressing Brentford was a concrete 3-2-3-2 to squeeze the space.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was nowhere near the defensive side of thing at that point and sat in the forward three ahead of his sixes (Gravenberch and MacAllister) which tells us something about Slot’s attitude to the Scouser’s position. Nominally a defender, but needed upfield when they try to play it out from the back.
I’m fascinated by the six role too. Or, in our case, the six roles.
I was on the Post-Match Show after the Sevilla friendly, and we all agreed that Alexis Mac Allister is absolutely goosed. Spent, knackered, exhausted and depleted. The poor lad needed a beach more than anyone we’d ever seen.
It was surprising then that he played for so long at Portman Road, though his role seemed to be more minding the shop than forcing chances – the less energetic of the two deeper midfielders. In any case, it worked. He’s been great in both games.
Ryan Gravenberch, though. He was like a man possessed.
I’ve never known what to make of the Dutch international. He’s clearly gifted and wonderfully aggressive when the mood’s upon him, but I never really felt that he had a position nailed down. ‘Generic midfield’ again.
If he is the new six, for the time being at least, it’s part of a duo role with his World Cup-winning mate. In the pre-season friendlies, Slot had Dom Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones in there, so he clearly likes a compact 4-2-3-1 set up. Sometimes, at least.
James Nalton tells me that in Brazilian football the ‘two’ there consists of a holding player and a ‘segundo volante’ who would be more of a playmaker. You’d think that that would be Mac Allister with Gravenberch killing attacks and protecting his back four, but the Brentford game saw the opposite. Ryan was everywhere and they couldn’t live with him.
Of course, this could all change for United. It could just be an arrangement suited to Ipswich and Brentford. No one knows.
It’s certainly encouraging, though, and this has been a fascinating opening to Slot’s tenure. It seems based on control and baffling the opposition rather than mugging them through energy.
Liverpool walked around the pitch for the last 10 minutes against Brentford. They could afford to as Brentford looked mentally done in, as much as physically.
I hope we keep it like this, though.
Interesting times.
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