Florian Wirtz is the centre of attention at Liverpool at the moment, grabbing headlines for his divisive performances thus far this season.

The Merseysiders secured an impressive 2-0 victory over an in-form Brighton side on Sunday afternoon, courtesy of an own goal from Pascal Gross and a strike from Alexander Isak. Wirtz was involved in the first goal, taking the shot which deflected off Gross and found its way past Bart Verbruggen.

This comes after the German number ten found the back of the net against Villarreal in the Champions League in midweek, and showed signs of life with a positive display at Brentford last weekend.

Things are looking up for Wirtz, although he still has significant work to do to justify the £116 million outlay Liverpool forked out to land him back in 2025. His non-existent showing against Manchester City, which sparked heated discourse about his levels, was only two weeks ago, so he's certainly not out of the woods yet.

The underlying numbers in the Premier League still look dubious for Wirtz, whose overall contributions don't resemble those of a top player.

That said, the never-ending conversations around the creative midfielder are arguably causing people to overlook another player's much-improved displays.

Ryan Gravenberch Deserves More Recognition

While Wirtz's performances, and to a lesser extent Bradley Barcola's, dominate the discourse in Liverpool spheres, another player is performing excellently and isn't being recognised.

Ryan Gravenberch, who endured a difficult season last year under Arne Slot, has looked transformed under Andoni Iraola in recent weeks.

The Dutchman actually began the new campaign somewhat on the periphery of Iraola's squad. He was left on the bench for games against Nottingham Forest, Ipswich Town, Atletico Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth in the early part of the season.

Whether it was a hangover from a disappointing World Cup with the Netherlands, or simply struggling to adapt to his new manager's system, Iraola showed little faith in Gravenberch early in his Anfield tenure.

This has flipped dramatically since the international break. With Dominik Szoboszlai injured, the former Bayern Munich man was named in Liverpool's starting eleven for the clash with City on Merseyside.

For 60 minutes, he was Liverpool's best player against Enzo Maresca's outfit. He ran the show in the middle of the park, carrying the Reds up the pitch with his aggressive bursts from deep areas, whilst patrolling Iraola's team's backline. His defensive work was a major reason why City generated just three shots and 0.08 expected goals in the opening 45 minutes.

However, these excellent contributions were forgotten about after he was shown an unfortunate second yellow card in the 62nd minute - an incident that unsurprisingly completely changed the game and led to Liverpool's 3-0 defeat.

Since this match, Gravenberch has played every minute for the north-west side, barring the match against Brentford when he was serving his suspension.

He's not let the detrimental dismissal against City impact him, going from strength to strength in these recent matches.

He looks more physically robust than he did before, while his passing has become more progressive and crisp. Gravenberch looks like a player reborn under Iraola, and this will only bode well for Liverpool as they look to build on recent encouraging performances as a team.