Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has hinted that Ryan Gravenberch's exceptional form in the holding midfield role this season has been sufficient for the Reds to move on from Martin Zubimendi.

The Spaniard was targeted in the summer but couldn't be convinced to leave his boyhood club despite Liverpool being prepared to pay his $62m (£51m/€60m) release clause. Now, though, he could sign for Arsenal instead.

"The [No.6 roles] are important to me, but they are especially important for our attackers," Slot told TNT Sports. "We feel we have attackers that are pretty special — the front three — and we've got five or six of them.

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"So the only thing we have to make sure is that these players come into promising positions having the ball a lot. Therefore you need two sixes who can bring the ball to them. With Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) and Ryan, we have two players who can bring the ball to the likes of Mo Salah, to Cody Gakpo, to Darwin Nunez, to Diogo Jota.

"And we have chosen to bring in two players who were maybe a bit more attacking-minded in the past. Macca played a lot of times as a No.10 for Brighton, and Ryan played more as an attacking midfielder, but he is comfortable on the ball.

"I even think the player we wanted to bring in (Zubimendi) — I think that’s pretty much out in the open now — he was also a player who was really comfortable. He’s still a player who could bring the ball from the last line to our forwards.

"This is a special quality Ryan has: the ability to turn away from his man. He is one of a few holding midfielders, pivots, whatever you call them in this country, who can create an overload by a dribble.

"Most of these players pass a lot but to create an overload by a dribble, you don't see that much. You don’t see that much as a No.6. I think the strength of this team is that we defend as 11. He has two center-backs behind him, too. Virgil van Dijk helps a lot with that too — in the Dutch language to make it clear to him."

Liverpool.com says: While Gravenberch has been exceptional, he has played a huge amount of minutes this season having never done so at this level before. If he was to get injured or become fatigued, Liverpool could have a major problem. Adding Zubimendi or someone similar to Slot's roster should still be a priority to ease the workload placed on the Netherlands ace.