Who is Riqui Puig, and how might he change the Galaxy?

After the Galaxy's recent acquisition of defensive midfielder Gaston Brugman recently, the club's now focusing on 22-year-old Barcelona midfielder Riqui Puig. Recent reports claim there is now a verbal agreement between Puig and the LA Galaxy as the MLS secondary transfer window closes Thursday. 

Coach Greg Vanney has talked about adding depth to his midfield for the past couple of months but made it known they were still looking at adding another player to the roster after acquiring Brugman. 

Puig was one of the most promising players of Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy and was even touted as the next Iniesta by some. He graduated from the academy and began to get minutes under Quique Setién in 2020 where he played over 500 minutes in La Liga. 

His minutes played have gone down since Ronald Koeman and Xavi Hernández took over as Barca's coaches. He played just 487 minutes last season and with the emergence of Pedri, Nico González, and Gavi, there was less playing time for Puig.

This summer, Barcelona has brought in Franck Kessié and is looking into buying Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva. Xavi left Puig off the Catalan club's preseason tour of the U.S. this summer to find a new club to play for. The Galaxy will look to get an international roster spot for Puig and the contract details are still unknown. His current contract expires in June 2023, he could be loaned to the Galaxy for the remainder of the year, though the Galaxy has to figure this part out. Here is a breakdown of the player and how he could fit into the Galaxy's plans.

Position 

Puig has been a central midfielder his entire career for Barcelona. He’s played as an 8 in the Blaugrana’s three-man midfield. With Brugman as a defensive midfielder, Puig could play next to Mark Delgado or Rayan Raveloson in a dual-8 set up. With Puig’s skill set, we could also see Vaneny wanting to move the Spaniard into a playmaking central attacking midfielder. Veteran midfielder Victor Vazquez, an ex-La Masia and Barcelona player, has played that role this season but has dropped in form and is playing fewer minutes with the addition of Brugman.

Strengths

Being raised in La Masia, Puig has learned and executed his passing with high efficiency. In his last three seasons, he’s averaged a 91.5 passing completion percentage, with more than half of his passes between 5 to 15 yards. He’s able to play short connecting ground passes rather than long balls over the top. He's a connector and plays simple one-two passes to keep spaces open in the midfield.

His reading of space is top notch and can play a through ball when the space opens up. He registered around 0.93 key passes per 90 last season with Barca and 5.93 of his passes entered the final third of the pitch per 90.  

His dribbling ability is also elite, keeping the ball at his feet and evading defenders with nifty moves or using his burst of pace to get into more space. He gets fouled often and can be useful at drawing free kicks in dangerous areas.

With these attributes, Vanney may want to experiment with him as a 10 to create chances and find players making runs in behind the opponent's backline. He also tends toward layoff passes and finding players out wide to move the ball into space.

Weaknesses 

Puig’s game lacks on the defensive end and that's been a main criticism of him at Barcelona. He averages around 1.23 tackles and 1.05 interceptions per 90 according to FBRef.com. That puts him in the bottom ten percentile compared to players in Europe's top five leagues.

However, with Vanney already bringing in a true defensive midfielder and Mark Delgado’s elite defensive work rate, Puig will likely not have many defensive duties in the midfield and be more focused on getting the LA Galaxy attack going once they win possession of the ball. 

How would he be used?

The Galaxy has played in a three-man midfield with one CDM and two box-to-box midfielders this season. With Puig added to the mix, one of the current starters will have to be put on the bench. The likely candidate for that is Raveloson. The Madagascar international has struggled to fit in this year, and giving up his position for a playmaking midfielder could be part of Vanney's plans. Raveloson is a physical box-to-box midfielder who likes to get higher up the field, but lacks a final ball to find forwards. Having Puig as the sole creator simplifies the roles of Brugman and Delgado, while having a threat like Raveloson to sub in can potentially change it up.

The Galaxy can play its usual 4-2-3-1 formation and have Puig at the central playmaking position with Cabral and Costa on the wings and Chicharito up top. The same can be said if they play a 4-3-3, leaving Puig by himself as a 10 or having dual 8s with Delgado and Puig.

The way Vanney utilizes the Spaniard will be extremely important to raising the ceiling of the club. With defensive reinforcements already added to the midfield, Puig could very well bring playmaking and solidity to a possession-based team.