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A waste of €80m? Ramos struggling to adapt at PSG

Published

10 months ago

November 10, 2023

A waste of €80m?! PSG’s investment in Goncalo Ramos showing few early signs of being worthwhile

The Portugal international arrived to much fanfare over the summer, but has only found the net in one game thus far and fallen out of the line-up

After just about surviving his first season at Paris Saint-Germain, all eyes were on how Luis Campos would rebuild at one of Europe’s most demanding clubs. The French champions’ lead football advisor relieved manager Christophe Galtier of his duties and sold Neymar, while he did not stand in the way of Lionel Messi departing either.

After hiring Luis Enrique, his reported fourth choice to replace Galtier, Campos went about assembling a new-look squad. One of his first moves was to sign Goncalo Ramos on a loan deal from Benfica with an obligation to buy. Although they didn’t send the Portuguese side a cent this summer, Ramos will someday cost the Parisians up to €80m.

On the surface, it made some sense. PSG were rife with uncertainty in regards to Kylian Mbappe’s future, but knew they were moving on from Messi and Neymar. A forward — of any description — was necessary. However, Ramos wasn’t the only attacker to walk through the entrance door at Parc des Princes during the transfer window.

Of the 11 signings Campos sanctioned in a that three-month period, six were attacking players who would be made available to Luis Enrique in 2023-24. That doesn’t include Xavi Simons, who was immediately loaned out to RB Leipzig but is expected back at some stage. Factor in that Mbappe eventually opted to stay, and suddenly the cupboard was far from bare.

Someone was bound to become a spare part, and right now that looks to be Ramos. The obligation to pay an initial €65m (£57m/$70m) already feels like an unnecessary financial burden that will need to be dealt with in the coming months, and is a sign that despite claiming to be more sensible spenders, PSG remain prone to the odd reckless investment as they search for a winning formula that will work outside of France.

Signing that made sense

In the summer of 2022, when PSG drew up their summer target list, they included a number of big names. Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva was reportedly in there. So too was Gianluca Scamacca, who eventually joined West Ham. With both players off the market, PSG turned to Ramos.

And in many ways, it made sense, as the Parisians needed a central striker. With Messi and Neymar no longer out-and-out goalscoring threats, and Mbappe insisting on having a No.9 to play alongside rather than be deployed there himself, Ramos, who had scored seven goals as a 21-year-old in the shadow of Darwin Nunez for Benfica, seemed an investment for both the present and future.

Campos, who had deep connections to Portuguese football, pushed for the move. But it never materialised, and the Parisians instead bought Hugo Ekitike — a talented but raw striker who had bagged 10 Ligue 1 goals for Reims the previous season.

That sequence of events eventually benefitted Ramos immensely. The forward was handed another year of development in his homeland, and scored 27 goals, leading the Primeira Liga in non-penalty goals, and averaging 0.79 non-penalty xG per 90 minutes.

But it was at the World Cup where he really turned heads. Portugal famously benched misfiring captain Cristiano Ronaldo for their last-16 clash with Switzerland in Qatar. In his stead, Ramos exploded, bagging a hat-trick that included a thumping near-post finish for one of the goals of the tournament.

That showing made him one of 2023’s hottest transfer targets. At various points, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich were all said to be interested. PSG, though, had already done the groundwork, and were always likely to beat the other interested parties.

A poor start

Ramos’ start to life at PSG has been mixed, at best. His full debut, the Parisians’ 0-0 draw with Lorient to open the season, was marred by missed chances and underwhelming sequences. The striker was handed his side’s best opportunity of the day, but nodded wide in the 78th minute to spoil what would have been a dream beginning in Paris.

He started the next fixture, another draw in which he failed to score, and has since drifted in and out of the starting XI. His only goals in a PSG shirt have come in the 4-0 thrashing of Marseille. In his first Classique, the Portuguese replaced the injured Mbappe, and was arguably more effective than the France captain on the day, bagging a brace and leading a famous rout of their old rivals.

This isn’t a player who has forgotten how to score altogether, though. Ramos has been effective for his national team, fitting into the same side as Ronaldo — the man he once replaced — to great effect. He has found the net three times in his last two games for the Selecao, showing the kind of cutting edge that saw him become so coveted by most of Europe’s best just six months ago.

Still, for all of this success in a national-team shirt, domestic goals have proved elusive. Ramos has put just 31 percent of his shots on target, putting him in the 19th percentile among Ligue 1 forwards, according to FBRef, while he is also slightly under-performing his expected goals. Something just isn’t clicking.

Competition up front

Ramos’ struggles have only been amplified by the depth in the squad that has been built around him. Luis Enrique’s initial flirtations with Marco Asensio, a free signing from Real Madrid, as a No.9 seemed guaranteed to budge the glut of PSG’s other striking options out of contention. But when the Spaniard picked up an injury, a chance emerged.

It was, at first, Ramos’ spot to lose, but he swiftly played himself out of contention. Randal Kolo Muani now appears to have the central spot nailed down, with Mbappe on one wing, and Ousame Dembele on the other. And when Luis Enrique shifts to a 4-2-4 formation — something he has experimented with to varying degrees of success — both Bradley Barcola and Lee Kang-in have had their names called before Ramos.

And while none of the Parisians’ attackers have truly hit a groove in front goal, the Kolo Muani and Mbappe link seems to be working. There is, of course, the French connection there, as Mbappe and Kolo Muani have formed a solid partnership up front for the national team, and Mbappe made it clear that he wanted to play alongside a more recognisable central striking force.

Additionally, the Kolo Muani is slightly more suited to that need than Ramos. He is more comfortable drifting into wide areas, or running channels, while he is also a sharp passer, and tidy with the ball at his feet, especially given his size.

Things get even trickier for Ramos when the manager opts for an extra attacking player. That system typically requires Mbappe and Kolo Muani to occupy the two central roles, leaving four players to fight for spots out wide — an area of the pitch in which Ramos simply doesn’t excel.

Luis Enrique will, of course, have few complaints about the depth of his squad — and Ramos has not been frozen out entirely. But, for now at least, he finds himself far down his manager’s pecking order.

Not playing to his strengths

Many attacking players tend to have their favourite spots in the final third. For Mbappe, it’s the left corner of the 18-yard box, ideally cutting onto his right foot. For Mohamed Salah, it’s the same space, but on the right side. Cristiano Ronaldo typically drifts to the far post. Erling Haaland sort of makes the whole penalty area his, such is his size, tenacity, and general obsession with finding the net.

Ramos’ favoured area is highly-specific. He, in fact, scores the same goal a lot of the time. Of his 27 goals in all competitions last season, 19 came from inside the six-yard box. A large chunk of those resulted from runs across defenders, and ensuing one-touch finishes at the near post. It was a near-perfect formula for Benfica, who utilised the pace and crossing ability of Alex Grimaldo to find Ramos as he made that signature dart in front of opposition centre-backs. Portugal caught on, too, with one of Ramos’ treble against Switzerland coming in a similar manner.

Unfortunately for him, it’s not the kind of move that PSG piece together. In general, the full-back on the left side of the pitch offers cover for Mbappe — and is seldom asked to get forward. And if there is any space at the near post, it is Mbappe’s to exploit. That run, Ramos’ go-to dart, is almost impossible for him to make. His preferred spot is rendered unavailable by the very nature of his most talented team-mate’s playing style.

Luis Enrique has admitted that Ramos isn’t always the best fit for his team, either. “He moves very well. It’s true that we’re not a team that crosses a lot so maybe we don’t see his best statistics, but he’s a top player, who does a spectacular job,” he said before PSG’s recent win over Brest. In the most measured way possible, his own manager admitted that his big-money signing simply isn’t the right fit.

All is not lost

But Ramos does have some clear advantages over his team-mates in this battle for selection. The one attribute of his game that will always be in his favour is his defensive work-rate. He ranks highly in tackles and clearances among forwards, while the underlying numbers agree with the eye test in that Ramos is an excellent presser from the front. For a PSG side that likes to win the ball back and break in transition, that’s a valuable trait.

“I love Goncalo, not just for his goals,” Benfica manager Roger Schmidt told The Athletic. “His attitude is excellent, he scored goals, but really helps with hard, defensive work and knows how to play with the team.”

A look at his general running patterns for Benfica also suggests that there is enough potential for Ramos to drop deep and play as a link-up forward. In his first season in Portugal, Ramos often operated as a second striker, and there were glimpses of the kind of quick interchanges that PSG rely on. His propensity for finding quick passes back intro central midfield — before running in behind defenders — can also offer something different when the Parisians counter.

But perhaps his most obvious advantage is the lack of goalscoring quality across PSG’s front line. Of PSG’s six attacking options signed this summer, only two — Kolo Muani and Ramos — have found the net more than once. Dembele, the supposed primary option on the right wing, is yet to open his account. Lee has impressed in short spells, but isn’t really a central striker and is far more of a creative force.

That certainly leaves the door open for Ramos to walk back into this team eventually. It is a dangerous thing to claim that Ramos could effectively become the lesser of six evils, but if it gets him a run in the side where he can find the net with regularity, the forward will have few complaints.