Ryan Gravenberch | A Lekker Number 6

Who's Kissing Cameras?

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Looked dynamite at Ajax, terrible at Bayern and even worse at Liverpool.

Another failed wonderkid? Bayern sold him on the cheap.
 
He's ok. Still young too.
 
He wasn't all that dynamite at Ajax at all. Came in young, but never really kicked on.

I thought he was actually doing well at Liverpool though?
 
Far too early to decide where he’s going long term. Prob be in a better position to decide whether he’s likely to cut it after klopp’s had a full season with him.
 
He's got all the tools to be a good player in terms of technical ability and physical properties. Very little of it comes together though. He has a way to go to be the kind of player that helps the team play better and solves problems for his team mates. He's just sort of playing somewhere in midfield. Looks very uncoached so far.
 
B20 said:
He's got all the tools to be a good player in terms of technical ability and physical properties. Very little of it comes together though. He has a way to go to be the kind of player that helps the team play better and solves problems for his team mates. He's just sort of playing somewhere in midfield. Looks very uncoached so far.
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It is not the technical abilities but more the physical properties he has he does not use or develop. He is pretty tall - but does not go into headers. He is pretty strong physically but does not use that. He does not really want to work on his defensive abilities. And his offensive abilities aren't as good as Bayern had them with other players. And that is a problem he already had at Ajax. I guess every coach/club things he can work on that...

But if a player is a defensive liability on a 6/8 and you have Musiala and Müller for the 10 (who are even better defensively than Gravenberch) you do not get much playing time. Tuchel even told openly in a press conference that he is not good enough for Bayern as an 8 and that he is clearly behind on the no. 10.
 
His name popped up in the transfer rumours today and I must admit that I had forgotten he existed. How is he doing at Liverpool? I'm guessing the transfer fee still wasn't a bargain?
 
Best midfield player on the pitch today.
Shades of Pogba.
 
Casemiro at 60m or Gravenberch and MacAllister at 70m? Imagine running a top club wo the ability to scout players.
 
Cathy Ferguson said:
Casemiro at 60m or Gravenberch and MacAllister at 70m? Imagine running a top club wo the ability to scout players.
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Scouting had little to do with it. An international for Netherlands who played for Bayern. A world cup champion playing in the Premier League. A triple winning Champion's League winning Brazil international. Everyone a perfectly known quantity.

If we had bought Gravenberch with the way he played last season everyone would be moaning about him being another ex-Ajax signing.
 
He’s looking the business after a stutter at Bayern and an underwhelming season at Liverpool. He always had the talent at Ajax.
 
Good he plays for Liverpool, if he was a United player, people would have already called him a flop and made a meme out of him.
 
AshRK said:
Good he plays for Liverpool, if he was a United player, people would have already called him a flop and made a meme out of him.
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He also showed glimpses of that for us but for every good action he lost the ball twice or was non existent in defense.

At the end we only played him as a CAM because he was too bad against the ball to play the 6 or 8.
So I was quite surprised to see today that he got much better in that regard.
 
BayernFan87 said:
He also showed glimpses of that for us but for every good action he lost the ball twice or was non existent in defense.

At the end we only played him as a CAM because he was too bad against the ball to play the 6 or 8.
So I was quite surprised to see today that he got much better in that regard.
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His problem has always been that he just seemed lazy or nonchalant, but he somehow lost that this season it seems.
 
Snow said:
Scouting had little to do with it. An international for Netherlands who played for Bayern. A world cup champion playing in the Premier League. A triple winning Champion's League winning Brazil international. Everyone a perfectly known quantity.

If we had bought Gravenberch with the way he played last season everyone would be moaning about him being another ex-Ajax signing.
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Spot on. Not just the moaning about an ex-Ajax signing, don't forget the moaning about "buying Bayern's rejects/Bayern clearly knowing when to sell to us" etc.

Also, from what I understand, his best position is actually as an 8/b2b, and not a holding/DM but Slot has been forced to play him there as he doesn't fancy Endo and they couldn't get the Zubimendi signing over the line.

Anyway, he's had a fantastic start to the season, it must be said. I didn't know much about him but when we were linked, posters on here likened his style to Pogba and that's an extremely close comparison.
 
Also it's so funny all of ye gowls falling over yerselves to disparage united and hail this a genius signing when he's been shite for the better part of three years and good for one and a half clips.
 
We need to move away from just signing players the manager has worked with. Unless it's a good reason to moan, then we should have signed him.
 
Snow said:
Scouting had little to do with it. An international for Netherlands who played for Bayern. A world cup champion playing in the Premier League. A triple winning Champion's League winning Brazil international. Everyone a perfectly known quantity.

If we had bought Gravenberch with the way he played last season everyone would be moaning about him being another ex-Ajax signing.
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You have to be complete and also point out that the triple winning CL player was 30 and not Modric. There were also sensible posters last year calling for Gravenberch transfer, we opted for Mount at double the price.
 
Kostov said:
You have to be complete and also point out that the triple winning CL player was 30 and not Modric. There were also sensible posters last year calling for Gravenberch transfer, we opted for Mount at double the price.
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Gravenberch has had a good month. There have been players who've had a season long purple patch and then disappeared.

It's an easy low bar to compare players to the Mount transfer, but considering Gravenberch was quite mediocre under Klopp, there's no reason to think that he'd have been a success here either.
 
erikcred said:
Gravenberch has had a good month. There have been players who've had a season long purple patch and then disappeared.

It's an easy low bar to compare players to the Mount transfer, but considering Gravenberch was quite mediocre under Klopp, there's no reason to think that he'd have been a success here either.
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Gravenberch will be a very very good CM for whoever he plays. It was a position we needed reinforcements and on a reasonable price. Mount was the most stupid transfer of the window, second to Onana maybe. He would have been much better than Mount who barely even played.
 
Reapersoul20 said:
Also it's so funny all of ye gowls falling over yerselves to disparage united and hail this a genius signing when he's been shite for the better part of three years and good for one and a half clips.
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It's my fault. I bumped this thread as a veiled attempt to make Slot look good.

I actually thought both Bayern and Liverpool were crazy to buy him. He was merely good at Ajax, not at all great or ready for the next step. Typical Raiola client refuses to extend his contract situation.
 
VP89 said:
I have this worry with Zirkzee
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I can see why, but I think it's not really nonchalance in his case. He just has a very calm or laid back demeanor and body language. He's like the anti Weghorst.
 
KirkDuyt said:
I can see why, but I think it's not really nonchalance in his case. He just has a very calm or laid back demeanor and body language. He's like the anti Weghorst.
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Motta said he does need a rocket when he's playing well though, as he has a tendency for it to dip into arrogance.
 
Good player playing well. He's only 22 and people had already written him off years ago. What he showed against United was the difference in speed and athleticism compared to Casemiro and Mainoo, as well as being able to break up play with interceptions and winning the ball. It was that speed to break forward with the ball that allowed him to exploit winning it in a good area. At 6'2 and winning the ball a lot for Liverpool so far this season - 2.7 tackles and 2.3 interceptions per 90 mins, he's been Liverpool's main ball winner and a physical presence in midfield with the potential for much more to come if he could start to get the assists he got at Ajax and the occasional goal on top of his good work for the team.
 
Ekeke said:
if he could start to get the assists he got at Ajax and the occasional goal on top of his good work for the team.
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Agree with what you say except this. He played in a more central/ attacking role at Ajax than he does now under slot. So expecting similar goal/ assist stats is imo unrealistic.
 
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