Real Betis had a slightly disappointing season where they ended 7th, entering the UEFA Conference League and ending 3rd in their Europa League group stage before being eliminated in the first knockout round of the Conference League. One position where they have made changes this summer is in their left-back position after the departures of Abner to Lyon and Juan Miranda to Bologna.

To replace them, they have signed Southampton’s Romain Perraud and now Ricardo Rodríguez, who is coming from a sensational Euro 2024 campaign with Switzerland. In this article, we will be investigating Ricardo Rodríguez and what he can offer Betis.

Name: Ricardo Rodríguez

Position: Left Back/Center Back

Country: Switzerland

Age: 32

Height: 182cm

Preferred Foot: Left

Last Club: Torino

Ricardo Rodríguez began his career at Zurich where he spent one season also at FC Zurich then returned and spent two seasons in the first team. After that, Wolfsburg paid €8.5 million for his signature, and he spent 5 seasons and a half there until he joined AC Milan for €17 million and stayed there for two seasons and a half. Later, he was sent on loan to PSV for 6 months and was sold to Torino for €3 million where he has been for the past 4 seasons.

Before we begin the data analysis it is important to mention that although he played as a center back for Switzerland and excelled, he will most likely play as a left back. This is because Betis don’t play with 3 center backs and it is not likely that he will play in that position with just 4 defenders. 

Crossing

For full backs, being able to go up the field and join the attack is an important aspect of their game, and their ability to put in dangerous crosses is an aspect that is not overlooked by coaches.

Here we can observe that Ricardo Rodríguez is not a player who likes to go high up the wing to put crosses in the box with just above 1 cross per 90. This suggests that he is more comfortable staying further back rather than joining the attack. This is a different profile to Betis’ previous left-backs who covered more distance.

Forward Passes

Full-backs are usually players that are counted upon to progress the play on the wing, meaning that forward passes are important for this position.

In this image, we can observe that Ricardo has the least forward passes per 90, nonetheless, his amount is not far off that of Abner and Miranda. Furthermore, he has the highest precision among them. This shows that he is very similar in this aspect to Betis’ former left-backs and tells us that he is comfortable on the ball which is a must if you want to play under Manuel Pellegrini, the Betis manager.

Progressive Passing

This passing metric gives us more depth into the danger of each player’s passing rather than just passing the ball forward 5m. This is because this metric only includes more specific passes such as a pass 10m closer to the opposition goal if the pass comes from the opposition side of the pitch.

This image tells us that Ricardo’s passing ability is excellent with more than 80% precision and almost 9 progressive passes per 90. This can be highly effective at Betis, a team that likes to have the ball and can be a good replacement for Miranda in possession as Miranda who has similar numbers is leaving the club.

Defensive Duels

Dominating defensive duels is key for any defender as their principal role is to defend their goal and not concede.

With this image, we can identify that Rodríguez has a high success rate in his defensive duels which shows he dominates them, however, he does not participate in many. Nonetheless, this is not something essential as Betis will have the ball for large periods of matches.

This chart compares Ricardo Rodríguez with the rest of the Serie A players in his position using percentiles in different aspects of the game. The percentiles work in the way that whatever the number, he is better than that percentage of players. If it is 70, he is better than 70%.

In this chart, we can see that Ricardo Rodríguez is relatively comfortable on the ball as he is above average, but he is only in the 70th percentile for passes attempted and the 66th for touches. Nonetheless, at the Euros he played in a Switzerland side that liked to have possession and he showed us that he can excel on the ball, seen with him being in the 76th percentile for progressive passes.

Furthermore, he is quite effective in his 1vs1 defending as he is in the 71st percentile for the percentage of dribblers tackled which is something that adds value to his profile. Moreover, he is in the 79th percentile for success rate in aerial duels which shows that he is able to succeed in these actions.

Romain Perraud: Southampton’s French Fullback

However, his other defensive attributes are below average and could be something to improve, though we saw in the graphs from before that he has a high success rate. Finally, it is also important to mention that he has a very low percentile in the offensive aspects which shows that he is not a player who is involved in the attack very often.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Ricardo Rodríguez is a good signing for Real Betis as he can offer depth in two positions and a change in the system to be in a 3 at the back formation. This is because of his defensive attributes, where he has a high success rate though there is a short sample that shows that he is capable of defending though he would have to participate in more duels.

In addition, his ability in the air and his 1v1 defending allow him to play as a left-sided center back with 2 more center backs. Furthermore, his passing is quite good and can help Betis in possession though he has another profile of a left-back to those the manager prefers. It is also important to mention that he has no experience in La Liga though having played in Italy and Germany and at AC Milan he shouldn’t have any major issues adapting.

By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Pressinphoto / Icon Sport