Former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has urged the club to sign “phenomenal” Napoli midfielder Fabian Ruiz, who had reportedly been a transfer target for the Reds earlier this season.
In January, Spanish media outlet El Desmarque reported [via TEAMtalk] that the Merseysiders had been preparing a major approach to try and bring the 23-year-old to Anfield. Speaking to GentingBet [via The Mirror], Heskey feels that the Spaniard would be an ideal addition to a Liverpool midfield which he feels is “ageing”.
He said: “Fabian Ruiz looks like a phenomenal player and Liverpool’s midfield is an area that needs strengthening a little bit with it ageing. A player like that would be good for Liverpool. Someone who can drive from the midfield, someone who can create stuff – he is a player that I’m sure Liverpool would love to have.”
Heskey is quite right to recommend Ruiz as a potential signing for Liverpool, with the Napoli midfielder excelling in a series of metrics for his club this season. He is an astute passer of the ball, with a 90.5% accuracy rate from a match average of 74.8 passes. At Anfield, Georginio Wijnaldum is the only player to have started a Premier League game who has a higher success rate (90.9%), while only Virgil van Dijk averages more passes per game among Liverpool’s squad (as per WhoScored).
Ruiz might not be a potent scorer (just three in 32 matches this term) but his attack-minded instincts enable him to average 2.4 shots per game – a higher figure than the Reds’ second top scorer Sadio Mane with 2.3 and better than any of the midfielders at Klopp’s disposal. The Spaniard also executes 1.5 key passes per game, which trumps the averages of every midfielder at Anfield.
While he is clearly comfortable on the ball, the Napoli man also does his fair share to try and recover possession for his team. He wins 1.7 tackles and makes 1.2 interceptions per game, the former coming in not far behind Jordan Henderson’s 2.2 per game and the latter equalling Fabinho’s match average – they are the highest performers for the respective metrics at Liverpool.
Heskey makes a valid point, too, about the age profile of the Reds’ midfield. Henderson and Wijnaldum, who have played more minutes in that position than anyone else for Klopp’s side in 2019/20, are both 29. Adam Lallana, who is set to leave the club this summer, turns 32 in May, while James Milner is 34. Naby Keita is the youngest Reds midfielder to start a league game this season and he is 25, as well as having an unenviable injury record.
Composed on the ball and dogged enough to try and win it back, Ruiz seems like a fantastically well-rounded option for Liverpool if they renew their interest in him and, as Heskey has said, he would inject some welcome youthful exuberance into the Reds’ midfield if he were to end up at Anfield.
Liverpool fans, do you agree with Heskey’s recommendation to sign Ruiz from Napoli? Share your views in the comments section below!
