Ryan Gravenberch started only four of his 24 appearances for Julian Nagelsmann at Bayern Munich, but the Germany boss insists he “expected” his recent rise.
By the time Gravenberch joined Liverpool in a £38.5 million deal in 2023, all involved at Bayern were in acceptance that his was a failed stint.
Thomas Tuchel, manager at the time of his transfer to Anfield, claimed that there was simply no place for his skillset in his 4-2-3-1 setup.
Of course, the Dutchman’s revival as a world-class No. 6 under Arne Slot – in a system which, despite the head coach’s protests, is very close to a 4-2-3-1 – makes a mockery of his lack of minutes in Munich.
Nagelsmann gave him 24 of his 34 appearances in a Bayern shirt, but still only afforded Gravenberch four starts and just 704 minutes on the pitch.
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Ahead of the clash between his Germany side and Gravenberch’s Netherlands, though, Nagelsmann told Sky Germany’s Kerry Hau that he had “expected” the midfielder to blossom as he now has done.
“He’s doing it perfectly,” the Germany manager said.
“But I expected this development because Ryan is a smart boy and a brilliant player.”
As he continued, Nagelsmann suggested that politics kept him from giving Gravenberch more exposure.
“It was complicated for him at the time because we had Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka in midfield,” he added.
“I was the new coach at FC Bayern and it wasn’t easy to put players from the German national team on the bench.
“For Ryan it was a new situation that he had to get used to because he had almost always played from the start at Ajax before.”
It would be wrong to apportion blame solely on Nagelsmann for Bayern wasting Gravenberch’s talents, particularly as he still only averaged 49.5 minutes on the pitch for each of his 38 outings under Jurgen Klopp last season.
But it speaks to the influence of Slot that in such a short space of time he has been able to coax the elite potential out of a player who has long been feted for the top.
“It is not that big of a surprise if you bring the quality like Ryan Gravenberch in, if you start to work with him, you do the right programme, and he has the team-mates he has, that he can progress,” the Liverpool head coach explained earlier this month.
“That’s what we’re seeing at the moment. Now it’s up to him to keep the standards as they are at this moment.
“That’s a challenge because he, like all the others, has to play every three days.
“He hasn’t played a lot of games last season. I think he already played more 90-minute games than he did in the past two seasons, so interesting to see how he copes with it but until now he does really well.”
