‘To be honest…’ – Ryan Gravenberch calls out full-time boos at Anfield in plea to Liverpool fans | OneFootball

Ryan Gravenberch felt that he and his Liverpool teammates didn’t deserve the booing which greeted the full-time whistle in the 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Anfield on Saturday.

The Dutch midfielder had given the Reds an early lead against a team who’d lost six consecutive Premier League matches before today, but the home side let their opponents back into the game and were relieved to get in at half-time on level terms.

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With no further goals after the interval, there were boos at the final whistle as Arne Slot’s team dropped another two points, although it wasn’t quite as vociferous as the vitriolic reaction to Rio Ngumoha being substituted midway through the second half.

Gravenberch: Liverpool didn’t deserve full-time booing

Gravenberch insisted that the full-time booing was unwarranted and called on Liverpool fans to get behind the team in the final two matches of this chastening Premier League season.

The midfielder told TNT Sports: “To be honest, we need them behind us. I think what they do is, OK we don’t win, but I think we don’t really deserve this, you know.

“I think fans have to be behind us for 90 minutes, because I think it was second half, when they went behind us, we pressed [Chelsea] really [well]. Hopefully in the next few games they won’t do the same  [booing].”

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Liverpool fans are remarkably patient – the team needs to respond

We agree with Gravenberch’s call for a united front for the games against Aston Villa and Brentford as the race for Champions League qualification goes to the wire, but his protestations about the full-time booing today mightn’t be well received.

Match-going Liverpool fans have been very patient throughout this nightmare of a season, even though they’ve made their displeasure known on a few occasions at Anfield, and any fan base would be volubly disgusted if their team had fallen so short of pre-season expectations.

The Dutchman was one of the Reds’ better performers this afternoon – in addition to his goal, he won five duels, completed two dribbles, made two tackles and executed two key passes (Sofascore).

LFC supporters will immediately get behind their team if they see maximum effort on the pitch, something which should be a given, so for them to be so vocal about registering their disgust is indicative of how awful the performances have been throughout the campaign.

It’s on Gravenberch and the players to show improvement in the next two matches, and hopefully we’ll once again see a demonstrable unity between the fans and the team at a time when the stakes remain sky-high for Liverpool.