Saint’s Record Signing has proved to be one to divide the supporters with his performances this season thus far, moments of magic clash with moments of frustration and it’s this link that I am going to look at throughout the article to see if there are plausible reasons for both sides of the argument amongst some fans.
Firstly it seems to stem from the amount Saints paid for him last summer, with the reported fee around the £12m mark it is a hell of a lot of money for someone who hasn’t kicked a ball in the Premier League before. However, what must be noted is the fact teams don’t pay for his current ability, they are paying a lot of it for what the player may become. In a way it’s similar to Jay Rodriguez, no one could say he is a £6m player at the beginning of the season, but on recent performances and the age he is we can see that he is certainly capable of exceeding that price tag. Ramirez is in the same boat, judging by his performances this season we have seen flashes of that potential price tag but I guess not enough of it. But I also feel we are being harsh on him, he has had to adjust to moving to a new country at a young age, learning the language and adapting to the different style of football that is played over here.
Looking at his current Premier League Statistics can give us a clearer look at how Gastón has taken to his maiden Premier League season.
Since joining from Bologna Gastón’s defensive aspect of play has come under scrutiny from supporters as they feel he isn’t working hard enough for the team, judging by his defensive stats his tackle win percentage is particularly high for an attacking player, as well as this he has won back possession of the ball 100 times (16 in Defensive Third, 67 in Midfield Third and 17 Attacking Third).
Against West Ham we had a situation where Ramírez had lost possession of the ball, instead of sulking and giving up; he gave chase to the West Ham player forcing pressure upon him where the United player eventually lost possession of the ball. As a result Saints regained the ball and Ramírez could then start up another Saints attack. See Below.
This picture highlights Ramírez gliding past the opposition before releasing a well weighted pass through to Lambert.
As well as winning possession of the ball in the middle third of the pitch, he also looks to help defend from the front. In the game against Reading it was Ramírez that gave Saints the opening goal by putting the defender under immense pressure. See Below.
As the picture shows the Reading player is given no time to play out from the back, instead he has to play it quickly which leads to inaccuracy and distance in the kick, as a result making it a lot easier for Saints to win back possession of the ball.
Ramírez is a very intelligent player, he can anticipate when a player looks to lose control of the ball or miss-time a pass, this allows him to intercept the opposition error and help Saints retrieve the ball. Due to Pochettino playing a high aggressive pressing game can only help Ramírez as it gives him a lot more time in the Oppositions Defensive Third. See Below.
The last two games has seen Ramírez intercept the ball 5 times in each game, a very high number for an attacking player, as stated above he has intercepted the ball just inside the Attacking Third making him become a fair more effective player for Saints. This can now help lead us onto his Attacking side of his game.
Did you know Ramírez has won 100% of his tackles in 12 of the games he has played in.
Having started 20 games this season, Gastón has scored 5 goals and directly assisted in 3 goals. A figure which should be seen in good light if you compare to some players who have played and cost a lot more, for example, Oscar at Chelsea has scored 1 and assisted in 4 goals since he arrived in the summer. The attacking stats show some interesting figures, despite having a lowish shot accuracy he maintains a reasonable chance conversion in comparison to some other players at the club, such as Adam Lallana who has a 44% Shot Accuracy but a 9% Chance Conversion. Creating 30 chances for Saints has put him 3rd for most creative player at Southampton, behind Lambert (73) and Lallana (37).
One thing that seems to frustrate the Southampton faithful is his Passing and Crossing when on the attack, I am with them on this because you feel there are better options to pass the ball. However, having watched him for a while now I can see why Gastón plays other options and it’s this reason why he’s going to be a top player. Gastón sees things that to us and other players don’t see, he can play balls in behind, alongside and through the defence with ease using inventive and disguised passing techniques. See Below.
I remember this particular pattern of play against West Ham because I am pretty sure everyone in the ground expected Gastón to play it long into Lambert, instead he looked one way and played it inside to Davis who lifted it over the defence for Lallana to go through on goal; this sums up Gastón all over as he may not have directly created Lallana’s chance but he has opened up the West Ham midfield by disguising his pass.
Once again against Reading a similar situation occurred when he played Rodriguez through on goal, cutting open the defence with ease. See Below.
Looking at the picture you could say the easier option is playing it across to the Saints player in space, but that’s what the Reading team expect so by cutting back across into Rodriguez path can lead to Saints becoming less predictable and more effective in front of goal.
As mentioned above he used is defensive duty to win back the ball for the 1st Goal against Reading, but he still plays a key role in the goal, by dropping into some space to receive the ball he knocks it into Rodriguez who can then link up with Lambert and the result is a 1-0 lead to Saints.
However, due to this expansive style of passing it will no doubt lead to a lot of miss-placed passes and this is where the frustration builds up because you feel it’s a sloppy pass that has lost Saints possession of the ball. But, I won’t have it any other way as it has helped us in a number of situations, such as Saints first win this season against Aston Villa when Gastón drops a perfectly placed pass onto Clyne’s foot to help steer us to the three points. Plus, we all want to see more of this…
This leads me onto his dribbling ability, despite being predominately left footed, he can still nip past players with ease shifting his body weight one way before going the other, making him an absolute nightmare to stop, therefore winning the the most fouls for Saints this season (42) so far.
Having picked up the ball centrally he drops his shoulder inside exploiting the gap between the centre and full back, keeping the ball close and attacking with speed any contact and Saints would’ve been rewarded with a free kick or penalty.
I personally feel we need to get Gastón in more of these situations in the final third, because a lot of his dribbling attempts are played through the middle third which is good because he can find the space to dribble into, but as he’s not blessed with a lot of pace the opposition eventually catch up and put him under pressure, as a result he gets dispossessed of possession. So far he has been the 2nd Most Dispossessed player in the Saints team this year with (50) behind Lallana with (56).
Crossing has become the topic of discussion in recent weeks, with a lot of the balls played in lacking any quality and conviction, and the stats don’t lie with 21 crosses in the last four games, only 3 of them reaching a Saints player. Although, some crosses have been poor with the balls not getting past the first defender or going past all the players, he still can deliver a deadly ball with Lambert coming extremely close against West Ham, and the next delivery in the same game played into a dangerous area but no player making a run to meet the ball.
As we can see against West Ham, a lot of the balls appear to be played behind players around the Penalty Spot which makes it harder for the Saints players to gain any momentum when meeting the ball, whereas the opposition defenders can gather momentum when clearing the ball. In terms of players attempting the most crosses during Open Play, Gastón Ramírez has a 17% accuracy, which is the same as players such as Puncheon and Schneiderlin. The stand out crosser is Rickie Lambert with 35% accuracy from Open Play; from Set Plays Gastón has a lower accuracy (30%), than Puncheon (47%), Schneiderlin (50%) and Steve Davis (38%).
Despite being guilty of the odd sitter, Gastón has a mean shot on him having attempted a shot in every game since Pochettino arrived as Manager (23 in total). With a Shot Accuracy of 38% he does tend to miss his fair share, but he has proved to be clinical in a number of games this season, with big goals in 2013 against Arsenal, QPR and West Ham.
http://www.feintzebra.co.uk/football/goal-gif-gaston-ramirez-southampton-1-0-west-ham/
To conclude Saints have a player who has experienced an up and down season, having struggled to gain any consistency within the squad, due to an injury when he first arrived, international duty and the current form of the team he has often found it difficult to gain any momentum to his performances. But, we do have an individual who is inventive, can produce the unexpected, create something out of nothing and has the potential to be one of the best in the league and for those reasons alone he has helped Saints pick up points at Home and Away this season and for that we need to make sure we believe in him as a player so he can carry on expressing himself and help him fulfil his potential.
Thanks for reading!
References: EPL Index (stats), FourFourTwo, SaintsFC.co.uk (pictures), feintzebra.co.uk, @SaintsRumours
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