I don’t mean to go overboard with excitement when I say he’s the best midfielder in the world, maybe that’s ever lived and will eventually put his name alongside the likes of Zizou, Pirlo, Modric and one of my personal faves in Kaka as midfielders who have won the ballon d’or.
1 Like
I would rest him midweek against West Ham!
1 Like
Oh shit. Yeah I didn’t realise there was a mid week game. I’d definitely rest him for that.
1 Like
Hopefully it’s many successful years away, but you can totally see players in the Toure mould complaining about not ‘feeling loved’ by Arne.
2 Likes
Not a particularly in-depth piece, but it’s nice to see Ryan getting some recognition.
4 Likes
Bayen doubled their money in 14 months, but I wonder what their thoughts on selling him are now?
Equally, I wonder whom in the LFC hierarchy was behind the decision to buy, and what analytics they relied on. It isn’t hard to find posts on TAN that call him a waste of a transfer, but a lot of our fans were ready to make the same mistake that Bayern did.
My takeaway is that if I had to make a living as a football scout, I’d starve.
7 Likes
I doubt they think twice about it, and I dont mean that as a slight on Gravenberch who is doing fantastically well and showing why we wanted him the summer he moved to Bayern. But his failure at Bayern was due to Bayern doing Bayern things and they have fucked up many a good situation by doing that so Ryan’s file will just be stuffed in an already overflowing filing cabinet.
In terms of what happened, they had an incoherent response to losing Lewi. They ended up trying to respond to having no good striker by playing all their forwards at once and hoping that could make up for it. The result was often room only for a single midfielder (most of the time others who on paper were playing midfield we really just trying to get in the box and score goals) and so the pressure on that player was immense. When they have someone as experienced and reliable as Kimmich to call upon the chances given to a teenager in his first season at a viper pit of a club who had always played up to that point in a midfield with more protection given to him were always going to be limited. So I think from our perspective, the view we had of him the year before would have likely been almost entirely unchanged by his season there.
The irony of it all, is that had they had current Ryan then, he COULD have played that role allowing Kimmich to go back to RB and the team would have likely been better.
2 Likes
My considered opinion?
Fuck Bayern.
8 Likes
Their Bayernness is our benefit.
My brother is a Bayern fan (I have no idea why), and he convinced me to watch the reality TV documentary about them. I came away actually rather impressed by how far off their self-image is from how I (and many) perceive them. ‘Never say die’ Bayern using their resources wisely versus my view of a club that usually folds like a cheap suit when under pressure in European competition, having grown accustomed to a league more or less run for their benefit where they use their wealth to disassemble any teams that give them a real challenge.
1 Like
I think it was Tuchel who said that Ryan prefers to play as a #8 but they use a 4-2-3-1 and that’s why they decided to let him go.
It’s funny to see him thrive in the double 6 now after bit of struggle as a #8 for us last season.
Pretty sure it was Lijnders who recommended signed him. Most people in the Netherlands knew about the quality but I think there were some doubts about his attitude.
2 Likes
That’s a pretty damn impressive stat especially when you consider how good a goal it required for us to concede the first one.
2 Likes
And how freakish the second one was lol
5 Likes
“Ryan Gravenberch was excellent again, such a lovely, easy mover, always looking around even as he barrels into the clinches. He touched the ball 40 times in the opening half-hour. It would be a surprise to hear he actually broke a sweat during this. From a distance Gravenberch looked as if he was quietly mowing the lawn or listening to a podcast while incidentally dominating a Premier League midfield.”
From The Guardian.
8 Likes
The way he takes a pass from defence and turns, taking out the oppositions pressing in one move. Amazing. It’s like we have discovered sliced bread.
2 Likes
That ability has always been of the best things in football for me , just ghosting past players like they’re not even there. He reminds me of Kaka already.
5 Likes