The Reality Of Ruiz

[fulhamben]

I honestly think it is a combination of Jols poor management, playing Ruiz so deep that he can't hurt the opposition as well as Ruiz's alarming lack of belief in his own ability that has made him into the shadow of a player that he was at Twente, I am certain he will not cut it at Fulham whilst Jol is manager..

would have been the same with berba today, he would have spent a lot of time in our half (although he would have probably tackled parker and the greek) and tried to get the ball going forwards. its just a crap formation playing with 2 dm's that has proved its not that good even against lower league teams. we would have been alot better playing sidwell and boatang in this game.

[Barrie]

I was watching a rather poor quality stream, but I'm pretty sure it was Ruiz who lost possession in the right back position.  Correct me if I'm wrong. Not gonna argue with the comment about Riise though.

[Ordar]

He dropped far too deep tonight. Almost Berbatov-esque. Which left Bent incredibly isolated

[fulhamben]

He dropped far too deep tonight. Almost Berbatov-esque. Which left Bent incredibly isolated

yes well blame parker and karagounis for that. if they could get things going he wouldnt have to be in our half.

[Chutney]

Well, I'll just leave this here and then show myself out.

I thought, by a good margin, Ruiz was our best offensive player.  Nearly all of whatever effective attacking moves we had were started by him, including the first goal.  He played a number of clever through balls, including a really nasty one around 55-60' that Bent and Kaca should have done better with.  His passing was aggressive, and he made runs into the box off the ball.

There is a lot of talk about "confidence" and how he looks "scared" on the pitch.  I don't understand what this means.  Ruiz rarely shows emotion of any sort other than the occasional grimace, but any attempt to interpret this as some sort of insight into his mentality is cultural projection at best.

One word about Taraabt, because in the first half, Taraabt was obviously the spark for a lot of movement.  Taraabt is the sort of skilled on-the-ball player who ought to dismantle League 2 opposition, and if we'd kept him on we probably would have won.  But he's also the kid on your 6 year-old's team who dribbles too much and only works to create his own shot, because he thinks he can score from anywhere.  (He can, just maybe not as frequently as he thinks.)  I think Taraabt is a valuable asset and a useful weapon, and he adds something Fulham has lacked recently, but there's no evidence yet that he can create for anybody else on the team.

This is spot on. Now can we move on from ruiz and find a new scapegoat.

[Ruiz11]

Ruiz was poor but so too were Dejagah and Riise, while Kaca kept giving the ball away. It seems Ruiz is always the scapegoat, usually unfairly.

[Chutney]

He dropped far too deep tonight. Almost Berbatov-esque. Which left Bent incredibly isolated

yes well blame parker and karagounis for that. if they could get things going he wouldnt have to be in our half.

Parker really is the master of the 2 yard sideways pass. Karagounis tried to play forwards but he needed support. We still need that forward thinking CM to partner Sidwell.

[Berbasilk_111]

It's funny how everyone could see how much effective Ruiz is in the final third of the pitch yet it seems as if he has been given instructions by Jol to remain back.. Very strange..

[fulhamben]

He dropped far too deep tonight. Almost Berbatov-esque. Which left Bent incredibly isolated

yes well blame parker and karagounis for that. if they could get things going he wouldnt have to be in our half.

Parker really is the master of the 2 yard sideways pass. Karagounis tried to play forwards but he needed support. We still need that forward thinking CM to partner Sidwell.

WHAT and miss parker doing this for 90 minutes   
Sophia Lucia does 54 pirouettes!!!!! 3/25/12

[Berbasilk_111]

Definitely agree with the fact that with Ruiz there's always a magnifying glass around everything he does on the pitch, which is a little unfair, but for a player of his ability you just expect so much more

[Bassey the warrior]

He was not worth any where near 10 million and has been a huge disappointment, the 10 mil could have spent on a much better player and he should be embarrassed of his price tag perhaps the worst signing since Marlet!

Ruiz is being played out of position. He is no good playing effectively as an extra central midfielder most of the time. He likes to create goals and score goals, that's what he's good at. Jol has wasted his talent and it infuriates me because he's technically brilliant, we've all seen that.

[Bassey the warrior]

Well, I'll just leave this here and then show myself out.

I thought, by a good margin, Ruiz was our best offensive player.  Nearly all of whatever effective attacking moves we had were started by him, including the first goal.  He played a number of clever through balls, including a really nasty one around 55-60' that Bent and Kaca should have done better with.  His passing was aggressive, and he made runs into the box off the ball.

There is a lot of talk about "confidence" and how he looks "scared" on the pitch.  I don't understand what this means.  Ruiz rarely shows emotion of any sort other than the occasional grimace, but any attempt to interpret this as some sort of insight into his mentality is cultural projection at best.

One word about Taraabt, because in the first half, Taraabt was obviously the spark for a lot of movement.  Taraabt is the sort of skilled on-the-ball player who ought to dismantle League 2 opposition, and if we'd kept him on we probably would have won.  But he's also the kid on your 6 year-old's team who dribbles too much and only works to create his own shot, because he thinks he can score from anywhere.  (He can, just maybe not as frequently as he thinks.)  I think Taraabt is a valuable asset and a useful weapon, and he adds something Fulham has lacked recently, but there's no evidence yet that he can create for anybody else on the team.

I agree that Ruiz was the most effective attacking player, it's no surprise to me that he was most effective in the final third. It's just so infuriating that he drops into midfield for most of the team, seemingly unwilling to try to enter the final third, because he's great there.
As for Taarabt, he has played some good passes in the past few games and will definitely get plenty of assists I think.

[fulhams_finest]

Take this performance out of the window Ruiz has still been a major dissapointment especially when you think of players like Michu that were worth less money and have talent to the PL like a duck to water - maybe it's time for Jol to finally face up to the act hes messed up on Ruiz and cut his losses and sell him back to a Dutch club - how much longer does he need to mould to the PL? After tonight's performance though I'm worried we might not win another game again

[Lighthouse]

Yes Ruiz is awful. Fancy being robbed for their.......wait a moment. What in gods name is he doing back there? Is  he dismissing the managers instructions?

Ruiz was poor in the first half but was creating in the second. He and Tarrabt were very dangerous in their own way. Shame that Ruiz seemed to be playing as a defensive midfielder at times. Not his choice I would imagine. Oh for the right man to see what good players we have and not ask them to defend. Ruiz can be a stunning player. But if he has to beat 5 players before reaching the half way line, then yes he will look poor.

Burton blimmin Albion were treated like a top Prem side. We should have come away with all the possession we had with more proper chances, not long hopeful shots. Very frustrating

[Berbasilk_111]

Jol is ruining Ruiz's Fulham career.. Who next? Dejagah?

[VamosFFC]

The question is will he or should he start against Newcastle this weekend?

[Count Berbatov]

This thread is a bit of a knee-jerk

[Bassey the warrior]

Take this performance out of the window Ruiz has still been a major dissapointment especially when you think of players like Michu that were worth less money and have talent to the PL like a duck to water - maybe it's time for Jol to finally face up to the act hes messed up on Ruiz and cut his losses and sell him back to a Dutch club - how much longer does he need to mould to the PL? After tonight's performance though I'm worried we might not win another game again

Michu doesn't have to spend most of the time at his half way line.

[nose]

ruiz is singularly unimpressive and now fayed is gone jol doesn't HAVE to play him.
He isn't without talent but is lightweight, rather slow and ponderous and against burtom attempted far too many poor passes or otherwise showboat.
Even his penalty was a joke, it went in but that was 100% the fluke of the century, he didn't hit the target!

i know some kind people defend him but he is really a waste of time, his good performances are too few and far between.

[Fulham1959]

He dropped far too deep tonight. Almost Berbatov-esque. Which left Bent incredibly isolated

yes well blame parker and karagounis for that. if they could get things going he wouldnt have to be in our half.

Parker really is the master of the 2 yard sideways pass. Karagounis tried to play forwards but he needed support. We still need that forward thinking CM to partner Sidwell.

He made plenty of long passes, too, and in the first half at least, he must have had twice as much possession as any other Fulham player.  But people on here seem determined to be negative about him.

I would say that for the first three quarters of the match we seemed to have 2/3rds possession, but it was going nowhere.  There was no penetration and there was virtually no running off the ball to create opportunities for a pass or to draw defenders.  Lots of pretty-pretty, but no killer balls and no end product.

I enjoyed the penalty shoot-out though and it was at our end.  First one I've ever seen in person.