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Ryan Gravenberch is growing up: “It’s finally coming out”
It would be pointless to discuss why Gravenberch was not happy in Munich. It would probably have been easier for coaches who would have given him the chance to play longer. But Gravenberch himself was probably largely responsible for the fact that we were not allowed to see so much of his potential in the Bundesliga.
No club in the world can beat this! Fabian Hurzeler’s impressive start at Brighton & Hove Albion“I’ve always seen potential in him. But I think he lacks focus,” Dutch national coach Ronald Koeman said recently. “He needed to improve in that area and now it seems like he’s finally realized what’s required of him.”
Of course, the fact that Gravenberch has clearly flipped a switch also benefits Koeman. Since moving to Bayern in the summer of 2022, the highly talented midfielder has hardly played a part in the national team for a long time. In early June, Gravenberch played for the Oranje for the first time in nearly two years in a friendly against Canada. He then made it into the squad for the European Championships in Germany, but didn’t play a single minute.
But in the future, Gravenberch could potentially play the role for Elftal that was chosen for him a few years ago when he made his breakthrough at Ajax. In Saturday’s 5-2 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina on their Nations League debut, he was in the starting line-up for the Netherlands in a competitive game for the first time in three years, since the 2021 European Championship.
And Gravenberch impressed in a slightly more attacking role than at the start of the season at Liverpool, providing a sort of double eight in Koeman’s team’s midfield together with Tijjani Reijnders. “Ryan Gravenberch played very well,” praised former Dutch international Rafael van der Vaart in his role as an expert on the TV station. Open School. “Extremely entertaining, he came across as a kind of free man, very dynamic, always between the lines. He plays with such confidence that eventually it comes across.”
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