A Year of Ryan Gravenberch
Ryan Gravenberch signed for Liverpool 12 months ago, so how do we rate his first season in the Premier League?
Alright, so we’ve reached that weird point of the season. You’ve already enjoyed every loop on the rollercoaster, and now you’re just waiting for the ride to stop.
Pretty much every team in the Premier League has nothing to play for. We thought the campaign might have ended slightly differently for Liverpool, but a fairytale ending to Jürgen Klopp’s time at Anfield just it wasn’t to be.
Competing for third place against nobody isn’t ideal, but with the summer on the horizon, these times can provide us with a welcome opportunity to take stock of the season as a whole, particularly with a look at specific individuals.
One of the players who has experienced a relatively beige debut campaign on Merseyside is Ryan Gravenberch, who was signed from Bayern Munich just 12 months ago. He’s the topic of this week’s Friday newsletter.
So this is an interesting one because upon inspection of what Gravenberch has delivered over the course of the past year, it’s been pretty much exactly what I expected.
This is a clip of me talking about his transfer on The Anfield Wrap about 24 hours after he signed on the dotted line last year. We recorded this just as the transfer window closed.
I didn’t really have much of a problem with Gravenberch joining. He was quite clearly a player with a high ceiling, and one who looked like one of the biggest prospects on the continent when he first emerged. Let’s not forget, he's still the youngest-ever player to represent Ajax in the Eredivisie.
The Dutchman joined for a reasonable price in the region of £35m, he was still just 21 years old, and he was only available because Bayern had seemingly purchased him in the previous summer without having a plan for how to use him.
My issue was more related to how comparable he was to the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott, who were already at the club, with Wataru Endō left alone as the only midfielder with a defensive mind.
I thought Gravenberch would get some minutes — mostly in lesser competitions — but while he would showcase glimpses of brilliance, he wouldn’t have that much of an impact on Liverpool’s ability to get wins as a team unit. He was a nice addition and an extra option, but he didn’t really solve any immediate need for Klopp.
Nevertheless, at that price, he was certainly worth a punt.
He’s sported the famous red shirt for a full season now, and I don’t think we’ve witnessed too many surprises. He’s got glaringly obvious strengths, and some weaknesses that need work. Moreover, within the context of the squad, he’s not particularly high in the pecking order.
Gravenberch has superb technique. He can receive the ball on the move — almost depicting shades of Adam Lallana — and he’s chipped in with a few scoring returns, too, posting four goals and two assists in all competitions.
The Reds starlet is a keen carrier of the ball, and he’s not shy on the dribble, either, with both combined on the scatterplot below. He’s expressive and offensive, but it’s probably fair to suggest that he could use his 6-foot-3 frame a little better, which also applies to his fellow compatriot, Cody Gakpo.
Gravenberch isn’t quite there on the defensive side just yet. He’s still young and we shouldn’t forget that he didn’t benefit from a pre-season with Liverpool last summer, but I don’t feel especially safe whenever he’s named as a starter.
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