It took Jurgen Klopp three months to make his first signing for Liverpool after being named head coach in October 2015. The player he went for was Marko Grujic. The Reds spent €7m in January 2016 to sign the Serbian midfielder who was immediately loaned him back to Red Star Belgrade until the end of the season.
Grujic eventually arrived at Anfield at the start of the 2016/17 campaign but he found minutes hard to come by in his new home. A hamstring injury that ruled him out for four months further compounded his misery. At the end of Grujic's first Liverpool season, he managed just five Premier League appearances with a miserly 39 minutes of football in those games combined.
The youngster made just four Liverpool appearances in the next six months of his second season as a Red before Klopp decided something had to give. Grujic was shipped on loan to Cardiff and never played for Liverpool again.
Grujic remained on Liverpool's books until he eventually left for good last summer. In between his time at Cardiff and last season, he was farmed on loan at two clubs in four and half years - Hertha Berlin and Porto.
Porto decided to pay Liverpool €9m and sign him permanently following his consistent performance in his second season on loan there. He remained largely free from injury and featured in 36 games in all competitions, 16 of which were starts.
Today, the 26-year-old Grujic is a more mature player at Porto than the scrawny teenager who arrived at Anfield nearly seven years ago. There’s a reason why he’s made 100 appearances with the Portuguese club and they keep coming.
Lately, in particular, he’s been in top form. In a Champions League knockout game against Inter Milan on Wednesday, Grujic was one of Porto's best-rated players despite defeat with a rating of 7.21, per Whoscored. In fact, he hasn’t gone below 7 out of 10 with his performances since after the World Cup.
Nowadays, Grujic plays as a central midfielder and may be loosely compared to Thiago Alcantara because neither contributes much in terms of goals and assists but both are great at progressive passing and winning the ball back.
Grujic is a better defender overall while Thiago is superior at passing. Data source: FBRef
Thiago, in fact, may be part of the reason why Grujic never made it at Liverpool
"After two years in the Bundesliga [with Hertha BSC], I returned to England more mature. That’s what they told me at Liverpool," Grujic told Serbian outlet Kurir in 2021.
"But when Thiago Alcantara came from Bayern, I estimated that there would not be much space for me I didn’t want to gamble.
"I see now that there are a lot of injured players at Anfield, it is certain that I would get a chance, but I could not have foreseen that. I believe that they believe in me, but I do not enter into their plans, nor can I change that.
"In every conversation, whether it’s Klopp or one of the directors, they always remind me that I am a player of great potential. But when I get into the system I don’t get a chance…it confuses me a little," he concluded.
