How do I remember dropdown values in php laravel?

I'm trying to make a filter for my page and I want to remember the form values. I've tried the old() function from laravel and some other things but that didn't work. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Here is my code:

blade.php:

<form method="get" action="/admin/users" id="searchForm">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-sm-4 mb-2 lg-4">
                <input type="text" class="form-control" name="name" id="name"
                       value="{{ request()->name }}" placeholder="Filter user by name or email">
            </div>
            <div class="col-sm-4 mb-2 lg-4">

                <select class="form-control" name="userfilter" id="userfilter">
                    <option class="genrekeuze" value="id">Sort By ID (default)</option>
                    <option class="genrekeuze" value="name">Name</option>
                    <option class="genrekeuze" value="email">email</option>
                    <option class="genrekeuze" value="active">active</option>
                    <option class="genrekeuze" value="admin">admin</option>
                </select>

            </div>
            <div class="col-sm-4 mb-2 lg-4">

                <select class="form-control" name="direction" id="direction">

                    <option id="richtingboven" class="genrekeuze" value="asc" >ascending</option>

                    <option id="richtingonder" class="genrekeuze" value="desc">descending</option>

                </select>

            </div>
            <div class="col-sm-2 mb-2">
                <button style="display: inline;" type="submit" class="btn btn-success btn-block">Search</button>
            </div>
        </div>
    </form>

Here is my controller:

public function index(Request $request)
    {

        //vraag input van zoekbalk en option list
        $zoeknaam = '%' . $request->input('name') . '%';
        $vallist=$request->input('userfilter','id');
        $direction=$request->input('direction','asc');

        //users uit database halen, paginate en where functie voor filteren
        $users = User::where('name', 'like', $zoeknaam)
            ->orWhere('email', 'like', $zoeknaam)
            ->orderBy($vallist,$direction)
            ->paginate(10);


        $result = compact('users');

        Json::dump($result);

        //naar view met data
        return view('admin.users.users', $result);
    }

The input seems to remember its value automatically but the 2 dropdowns (#userfilter and #direction) don't. If anyone knows a solution feel free to comment.

Thanks for reading!