Though he did start to get some minutes under Thomas Tuchel towards the end of the Bundesliga season for Bayern Munich, Ryan Gravenberch has made it abundantly clear that he had expected to play far more this past season. The Rekordmeister signed him from AFC Ajax last summer for a fee of 18 and a half million euros along with fellow teammate Noussair Mazraoui, though the Moroccan technically joined on a free transfer.
All in all, Gravenberch made a total of 33 appearances across all competitions for Bayern, scoring once and providing one assist from those matches. The overwhelming majority of those appearances were as a substitute coming off of the bench between both Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel’s decision making for their squads.
Speaking on Sport1’s “Die Bayern-Woche” podcast recently, former Bayern technical director Michael Reschke spoke about the difficult spot Gravenberch currently finds himself in at the club. The player has voiced his frustration with a lack of minutes multiple times this season and mentioned being open to a move this summer. Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool are potential suitors as they’ve just offloaded James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita.
“From Gravenberch’s point of view, you get caught in a vicious circle. You don’t have enough match practice. And when you play, you want to do something very special,” Reschke explained, knowing that he’s always trying to showcase himself as best he can with the limited opportunities he gets. That can create an environment where he tries to be a bit too over-zealous or too ambitious, resulting in mistakes being made. Reschke added that Gravenberch can lose his “self-evidence and become dissatisfied” when just one or two things go wrong for him.
Despite making comments recently that he was unsure whether or not he’d ever be getting more minutes if he stays ta Bayern, Gravenberch recently said that he’s still expecting to be a Bayern player come next season. “I assume that I will still play at Bayern next season. That’s really how I feel about it. I’m at a top 3 club in the world. I think that’s beautiful and special. I’m not going to give up easily. My goal is still to succeed at Bayern,” he recently Netherlands-based outlet Altijd dichtbij (via @iMiaSanMia).
“It’s incredible to see how players literally give everything here. Players (in Germany) run much more than in Eredivisie. Football is also very popular in Germany. The atmosphere is beautiful. I also liked that in the Netherlands, but it’s a different level here,” Gravenberch added.