MARKO STILL KEEN TO MAKE MARK AT ANFIELD
AS Jurgen Klopp’s first-ever signing as Liverpool manager, former Cardiff loanee Marko Grujic may be forgiven for feeling like Anfield’s forgotten man.
It’s well over four years since the Reds struck a deal with Red Star Belgrade to sign the midfielder and leave him on loan with his boyhood club.
His most recent Liverpool appearance came way back in December 2017 in a 5-1 win at Brighton. Virgil van Dijk was still a month away from becoming a Reds player and Philippe Coutinho ran the show on the South Coast.
That run-out at the AMEX Stadium was the last of his 14 games for Liverpool across four years of being registered on the books at Anfield.
To put that into context, he played that same number of games during a half-season loan spell at the Bluebirds in 2018.
Grujic may be swimming against the Liverpool tide right now, but there is still hope given the way his loan moves have gone.
And while some on the outside may feel the Premier League champions-elect have moved on beyond the combative midfielder, those on the inside are keeping careful track of his development in Germany.
Grujic is in the second season of his loan spell with Hertha Berlin with Liverpool’s loan and pathways manager Julian Ward remaining in regular contact with the midfielder.
Klopp is kept up to date with all pertinent matters around Grujic’s time in the German capital as he continues to chisel and hone his game to a standard that will give him a fighting chance of making the grade at Anfield.
He is under no illusions, however. “That challenge is so big,” Grujic admitted to The Athletic this week.
“Those boys have performed so well this season, which I’m happy about.
“There are a lot of quality midfielders at Liverpool.
“It’s honestly hard to get a chance.” Discussions about next season, Grujic says, have not yet been aired given the suspension of football around Europe at present.
There are plainly bigger matters for Liverpool to consider at present with their aims of lifting a first league title in 30 years hanging in the air.
“I’m not a youngster any more,” he says. “At the age of 24, I’m at the stage when I need to be making important steps in my career. I need to think and I need to be clever about what happens next.
“Is the best thing to stay in Liverpool and wait for a chance or is it time to have another loan or move to another club?
“At the moment, I don’t know the answer. Everything is still open.”
Grujic’s rhetoric appears at odds with comments made as recently as January when he stated his aim at forging himself a place in the Liverpool squad for the long term.
“You can’t just give up on your goals,” he said in an interview with Goal.
“In fact, I’m probably working harder now than I’ve ever done before in my life.
“I know it’s going to be tough. I’m not stupid. I know that Liverpool right now are an unbelievable team, the best team in the world.
“So, I know that I have to be at a very high level if I want to have a chance.”