Although Guido Rodriguez was most frequently linked to Barcelona and even seemed to have a deal in place for the Real Betis star before Hansi Flick evidently vetoed the transfer upon his arrival in Catalunya.
Therefore, that opened the market wide open for the best free agent defensive midfielder available, and after rumors initially surfaced, West Ham decided to quickly secure the signing of the 30-year-old Argentinian No. 6. to join their midfield options.
As West Ham welcome the veteran LaLiga standout to their side, let’s take a closer look at how Guido Rodriguez can help the Hammers in the 2024/25 Premier League season as they look to get back to European football after winning the 2022/23 Conference League.
Here’s a look at Guido’s playing style, the strengths that he can bring to the table for West Ham, and his overall fit in the Hammers’ lineup next season based on their current personnel.
Playing style
Guido Rodriguez is a defensive midfielder’s kind of defensive midfielder. Basically, he’s not one of those deep-lying playmakers, ball-carriers, or flashy auxiliary scoring types.
The guy is a bread-and-butter No. 6. Rodriguez is all business and makes a living on his ability to break up play as an active defensive presence, shielding the back four with defensive play that is both positionally sound and productive for the team.
It’s important for a defensive midfielder to be able to cover up passing lanes and help a team maintain its shape, but a great defensive midfielder also needs to be able to directly intervene and turn defense in to attack – otherwise, there’s no point in considering them a premium player if they are just a static wall.
Guido Rodriguez emerged as one of the best midfielders in LaLiga over the past few seasons for Real Betis, hence why he was so closely linked to Barcelona as a free agent (other than the obvious fact that Barca want to sign pretty much any half-decent free agent, broke as they are).
Last season, Guido averaged 2.2 tackles and 1.2 interceptions per game, making him one of the most productive defensive midfielders in Spanish football. He also completed about 86 percent of his passes.
Strengths
At his best as a defensive midfielder in a double-pivot with a more playmaking option, Rodriguez is at least accurate enough as a passer and athletic enough to hold his own as a lone 6, especially if the system would have a second, more box-to-box attacking midfielder, which became a thing for Manchester City under Pep Guardiola when they won the 2022/23 Champions League.
West Ham don’t run that kind of a formation, and they will be more defensive under Julen Lopetegui, making use of a double pivot. That’s a good thing for Rodriguez, who works better in a pair and would actually fit in well with the more dynamic Edson Alvarez.
Guido had a strong 2023/24 season for Real Betis next to breakout star Johnny Cardoso, but the funny thing is that he was actually even better in 2022/23 and legitimately one of the best No. 6’s in the world.
That season, Rodriguez averaged a staggering 3.4 tackles with 1.2 interceptions per game, and it also wasn’t the first time that the Real Betis star averaged at least three tackles per game.
His biggest strength is definitely being a ball-winner in the middle of the park, but he is a little more finesse than destroyer in the Spanish style, even though he can bring a nasty edge that sets the tone for the rest of the team. Lopetegui and West Ham, by the way, will love that.
On the ball, Rodriguez is great at using his body to generate fouls and is a decent progressor of the ball. Even though nobody will mistake him for being a creative force like LaLiga star Aurelien Tchouameni, Guido is smart and safe with his passing; he does more good than harm in that respect.
How he fits
As a free agent, Guido Rodriguez joins a West Ham side that already had one of the better defensive midfield anchors in the Premier League last season after signing Mexican international Edson Alvarez following Dortmund’s surprising decision to pass on acquiring the former Ajax star.
Alvarez is the best No. 6 at West Ham, but veteran and Czech Republic captain Tomas Soucek is also a very good footballer, even if he is even more limited to focusing on defending than Rodriguez.
Guido is a more defensive and stabilizing option next to Alvarez, but both players are intelligent passers and astute defenders who base their games more on substance than style.
That can actually help West Ham even more, because they have a lot of players who like to focus on playmaking and having room to freely interchange in the attack, such as breakout star Mohammed Kudus (also of Ajax fame) and star man Jarrod Bowen.
Plus, West Ham have two true playmakers in technical wizard Jame Ward-Prowse of set piece fame and the tricky Lucas Paqueta, who combines playmaking with a dogged pursuit of recovering the ball.
The interesting dilemma, I guess, is that Soucek and Guido are both around 30 years old and very much lean hard towards the defensive side of the midfield spectrum. Lopetegui and West Ham likely saw Guido as established cover, and, surely, Lopetegui is very familiar with Guido’s work as the former coach of Betis’ great rival Sevilla.
Both Soucek and Guido, however, accomplish their defensive roles differently, so they can work together well as alternating complements to Alvarez, with Soucek likely initially getting more minutes due to familiarity with West Ham and then ceding time to Rodriguez, who holds a far superior pass completion percentage by about 10 points.
Either way, West Ham are getting a starting-caliber defensive midfielder and a leader for free, so the market opportunity to get a quality depth piece in the fight for European football trumps all.
In general, the Rodriguez signing fits in line with a more defensive approach under Lopetegui, as the Hammers have already significantly shored up their back line with the additions of stalwart defensive presences like Konstantinos Mavropanos, Max Kilman, and ex-Manchester United and Crystal Palace right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.