Ejaria scores first Rangers goal & Grujic makes Hertha Berlin debut – Liverpool FC Loan Watch

August 27, 2018
Ben Twelves

Ovie Ejaria scored a brilliant first goal for Rangers and Marko Grujic made his Hertha Berlin debut as Liverpool’s loanees enjoyed another busy week.

The borrowed Reds didn’t quiet manage to hit the same heights as last week but it was still a productive spell for those involved.

Eight of now 14 loanees featured, with Harry Wilson (injured), Connor Randall, Shamal George, Allan Rodrigues and Anderson Arroyo (all unused) the men to go without action.

Here’s how the Reds fared over the last seven days, starting with the star performer…

Ejaria opened his Rangers account in stunning style…

The talented midfielder provided the big positive of the loanees, enjoying a brilliant week at Rangers in which he scored his first goal for the club.

Ejaria was in top form in both of his outings, impressing first in a 1-0 Europa League qualifying win over FC Ufa, with Steven Gerrard labelling the 20-year-old’s display on the night as “magnificent.”

Brimming with confidence after Gerrard’s praise, Ejaria carried his fine form into Sunday’s exciting 3-3 draw at Motherwell, where he produced another excellent performance in centre midfield.

https://twitter.com/RangersGoaIs/status/1033690194820644865

And the icing on the cake came as Ejaria scored his first goal of the season, netting Rangers’ third to make it 3-2 by finishing a counter-attack with a superb curling strike after some slick footwork.

After an understandably tentative start, it’s great to see Ejaria really starting to come to the fore, and he can take confidence going forward to keep producing this level of performance.

Grujic made his Bundesliga bow at Hertha Berlin…

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm8GXD1nbtv/?hl=en&taken-by=herthabsc

After completing a season-long move to Hertha Berlin last week, Grujic was straight into matchday involvement and enjoyed a small taster of action in his side’s Bundesliga opener with Nurnberg.

Boss Pal Dardai deemed it too soon for the powerful midfielder to start but he made his bow as a late substitute to help close out a 1-0 victory as Hertha made a winning start to the campaign.

There is big expectation on the Serbian’s shoulders for the season ahead, and he will hope to get properly up and running with a first start against Schalke04 next time out.

Six more Reds enjoyed match action…

Staying in Europe, Taiwo Awoniyi enjoyed two outings for KAA Gent across European and domestic competition but failed to hit the net in either appearance.

The Nigerian led the line in the Europa League qualifier against Bordeaux which ended 0-0, before coming off the bench in a 2-1 win over Lokeren—in which the crossbar denied him a first league goal for Gent.

Academy full-back Anderson Arroyo joined Awoniyi at the Belgian club on Thursday on a season-long deal, but the clash with Lokeren came too early for the Colombian to be involved.

Five more Reds enjoyed action on home soil including Danny Ings, who made a second successive start for Southampton but was unable to make it two goals in two games as the Saints lost 2-1 to Leicester.

In the Championship, Ben Woodburn dropped to the bench for Sheffield United’s trip to Bolton after a poor performance last week and he was only a late sub in the Blades’ 3-0 win.

Herbie Kane’s strong spell at League One Doncaster continued as the academy midfielder enjoyed back-to-back full games in successive goalless draws against Shrewsbury and Portsmouth.

In Scotland, while Ejaria shone it wasn’t quite as successful a week at Rangers for Ryan Kent.

The winger had one outing, that coming from the start of the win over FC Ufa, before he dropped to the bench and was an unused sub in the Motherwell draw.

Finally, Adam Bogdan was back in action at Hibernian after injury and helped his side earn a respectable point in a 1-1 draw against Aberdeen.