In the sights of PSG to strengthen its midfield, the Spaniard Fabian Ruiz looks like the surprise of the chief Luis Campos. Surprising? Not that much. Here’s why.
Fabian Ruiz suddenly burst into the lives of Parisian supporters who, for the most part, weren’t really expecting it. And the first opinions, like the climate of distrust that surrounded Christophe Galtier’s first steps at PSG, are mixed to say the least. Not that the player is, in the eyes of the supporters, unworthy of the capital club. Only, no rumor had made the link between the 26-year-old Spanish international and Paris Saint-Germain so far. Above all, in the mind of a Parisian supporter, the club’s history in terms of transfers encourages caution, moreover when it comes to the midfielder. From Krychowiak to Herrera, PSG have not always been very inspired, to say the least. Something to make you suspicious, of course.
Many things have changed this season, however, which should give cause for optimism, from the organization of the sports sector to the general philosophy of the new project. The revival initiated by the Campos-Galtier duo seems to be bearing fruit. Hand in hand, the sporting director and the coach imagined this summer a system of play and an animation most adapted to the profile of the players who constituted the hard core of the Parisian workforce. It is then up to them to improve it by integrating recruits whose profile corresponds to the playing identity of this new PSG. This is why the Parisian club turned to Fabian Ruiz, a player that Luis Campos has appreciated for several years. The sporting director of Paris Saint-Germain has certainly fallen in love with a player of rare technical elegance, and who could bring all his creativity to the Parisian midfield.
“A bad idea to make a six”
“If you are in love with Verratti’s right foot, you will quickly fall in love with Fabian Ruiz’s left foot,” confirms Johann Crochet, Italian football specialist for RMC Sport. Pivotal player for Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli, even if he did not start all the matches he had to play during the past season (29 starts in 32 Serie A games), Fabian Ruiz also has a profile rather versatile, able to cover several positions in midfield. In 2021-2022, he evolved in 6 or 8, in low point of a midfielder with three or in a double pivot in 4-2-3-1, alongside Zambo Anguissa in particular, while Zielinski played higher in a more offensive position of 10.
“I still find him better when he has the opportunity to have the field in front of him to attack the spaces, in the accompaniment of the actions, he can find himself at the finish, believes Crochet. It would be a bad idea to do a six, because on the contrary, it does not have the dynamism, the activity of a six. Another downside, his aerial game is almost non-existent despite his height (1.89m), not to mention that he is not really an explosive player on the first supports. Once launched, on the other hand, Fabian Ruiz is “very difficult to stop”, and knows how to play with his athletic profile in his forward projections. “With a player like that, you need a dynamic profile at his side. From what we saw in Naples, I can’t imagine him as the defensive midfielder of the two.”
The Neapolitans exasperated by his irregularity
Fabian Ruiz’s main qualities lie in his left paw and lie in his ability to feel the game. above average, knows how to overthrow to provoke one-on-one in free space.” Not to spoil anything, he scores goals, and by far preferably, hence the interest of knowing him close to the surface. Holder in the eleven Opta last season in Serie A, the Spanish midfielder is the player who has scored most often from outside the box: 6 goals out of a total of 7. He is also the best on average passing completions per game (74%) among players with at least 20 appearances, knowing that he tries and creates a lot. In the 3-4-1-2 of Christophe Galtier, Fabian Ruiz would approach, at first sight, more of a Vitinha, who projects more than Marco Verratti to compensate for the movements of the offensive players.
Central in the Napoli game to which he brings fluidity, Fabian Ruiz is also much criticized in Naples for his lack of consistency. Since arriving in Italy, the international has never found the expected continuity in his performance. “For three months, he sometimes made us say that he was the best midfielder in Serie A”, underlines Johann Crochet. And then nothing. “He is extremely inconstant, I don’t remember a full season from him,” continues our Serie A specialist. Fortunately for Naples and perhaps Paris Saint-Germain, Fabian Ruiz has especially experienced high with Napoli, notably against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, during the last edition of the Champions League, last February.
At the same time, the company Olocip, which describes itself as a “pioneer” in the research and application of artificial intelligence in professional football, indicated that in terms of sports performance, in the position of midfielder, nobody he was as successful as Fabian Ruiz since the start of the season. The Spaniard was ahead of Joshua Kimmich in particular. In this same study, Olocip calculated that the player was in the top 3 of footballers having the most impact on the performance of their team in Serie A. Which is not nothing, with all the reservations that such an approach must and can elicit. In the crosshairs of Barça and Real, appreciated by Pep Guardiola in England, who thought he could get him free next year, according to Cadena Ser, Fabian Ruiz is getting closer to Paris Saint-Germain. His transfer looks like a great deal, but we will still have to be patient to get to the bottom of it.