Marko Grujic creates an inner Liverpool conflict.
This is a player who’s easily good enough for the Premier League but finds himself below a catalogue of elite and embedded midfielders.
In no particular order, his squad competition is Fabinho, Thiago, Naby Keita, Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
It’s a surprise he hasn’t put his neck out while looking up that far up ladder.
Put simply, Marko Grujic is never going to be a Liverpool regular.
But when he plays like he did against Lincoln City and then Arsenal, there’s always going to be a wishful element to how he perceive the Serbian.
It’s well known that he was Jurgen Klopp’s first signing, but if Grujic had arrival at Liverpool under Brendan Rodgers there’s a good chance he would have become an established option.
Midfielders like Joe Allen were able to play 132 games for the Reds before Klopp swept them away, and there’s no reason why Grujic wouldn’t have been able to find himself a stable career as a Red.
He’s clearly good enough for most Premier League sides – as he two excellent seasons in the Bundesliga proved. He’s just unfortunate in that he found himself at Liverpool when they transitioned to an elite club before he was ready to step up the first team.
There’ll be lots of fans who are sad to see him go because his ability and promise is clear when he plays, but the conflict comes because Grujic is so far behind in the pecking order that it’ll take an act of God to see him play a Premier League game for Liverpool.
He needs regular minutes now and won’t find that at Anfield, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad player, he’s just a player making his way in the wrong era of the club.