Paulus Arajuuri traveled as Urheilu’s expert to the European football championships in Germany and fell in love.
The Huhkaki’s long-time confidant appreciates players who overshadow the stars of the opposition. The former topper saw two convincing characters in the back lines of the host country Germany. One of them is a viable candidate for even the best central defender in the world.
– I have always loved defenders who show emotion, live with the game and really love to defend. Antonio Rudiger is a truly comprehensive defender. Modern, says Arajuuri.
The word “modern” is important. Today’s central defenders are demanded more than ever.
The same man should be tall and energetic, fast and combative, brave and aggressive, intelligent and technically skilled. Sometimes you have to compromise on something. Someone is good in the air, but worse in motion. Someone is a great overcoat, but wants to avoid the ball at their own feet.
Rüdiger can do anything.
– Good and confident with the ball. Big and aggressive, and able to defend forward, but also quick. At the same time, he is really smart and knows how to read the game very well. You rarely see anyone run past him. It’s hard to find the right balance for forward defense. You have to play aggressively, but be careful not to play yourself out, Arajuuri describes.
Even at the top of the world, Rüdiger is a rare combination of all tools.
– The central defender is basically a playmaker, but at the same time the last lock. It has a lot of threads on its hands. Topparina can never fall asleep or disappear for five minutes. Concentration must be at the highest level for the entire 90 minutes. Rüdiger has a lot of special qualities, but he has no obvious weaknesses. He is a hybrid model in all features.
Then there’s the dark side.
Those who have followed Rüdiger know his excellence. At the same time, they remember strange twists and turns. Psychological warfare, usually far from the ball.
Rüdiger likes to chat with the attackers. Sometimes there is a small pat on the back, shoulder or neck, or a small stroke on the head.
In the Premier League, he crept behind the opponent’s goalkeeper in a corner kick situation and tore open the velcro straps of his gloves with the dexterity of a pickpocket. This winter he got in a local match Alvaro Morata on the brink of fury, grinning widely while pinching the Spanish nipple.
– To a certain extent, they are really entertaining things. The gray area is really big. It can go badly overboard, and any kind of intentional harm goes too far, says Arajuuri.
– A certain kind of good-spirited drilling inside the attacker’s head is absolutely acceptable. Likewise, the fact that in the first duel, it’s a bit of a test to see who will actually be there. The attacker must be made to feel that there is no easy day ahead. I like confusion as long as respect is maintained.
By some accounts, Rüdiger is a rat – a player who uses dubious means and wanders the borderlands of good taste to gain the upper hand.
Erling Haaland while fighting against Rüdiger, for example, sometimes bent down to waist height and pressed his head into the armpit of the confused Norwegian.
Hugging from behind or pressing the shoulder in a deep crouching position almost to the knees have also been seen.
In the previous European Championship match against France, Rüdiger even barked Paul Pogba from the shoulder.
Rüdiger denied it, but stated that the situation did seem a bit unpleasant.
– I don’t cry over cards or anything else. He would just show off a bit. We’ve known each other for a long time, Pogba, who roared in pain on the TV broadcast, said after the match, even surprisingly calmly.
“They started calling me Rambo”
Dirty tricks have their risks. Some opponents they just fuel for better performances.
In the worst case, one’s concentration runs away. Arajuuri remembers his own lesson.
– The opponent chased me on the sideline and I misled him in the wrong direction. I turned, smiled, and asked where did you go? He then put the ball between my legs and scored two or three goals. After that I thought that I won’t go there anymore… It’s bad if you start bragging in the middle of the game.
Rüdiger’s “luck” is that he rarely loses his grip. So German could be said to be infuriating, good, and infuriatingly good.
He can play almost any role and any position on the defensive line. He’d rather take Tackles and tackles a little too far than too little. Considering his playing style, it is a small wonder that he has only received five red cards in the men’s league in 12 years, and not a single one after the 2016-2017 season.
– I played so hard on the concrete courts that my shoes had holes everywhere. They practically became sandals. I was so aggressive that they started calling me Rambo, he said in the Players’ Tribune.
– In Stuttgart and AS Roma there were reds here and there. I had to learn that I couldn’t take care of things on the court the same way I did on the cage futsal court in Berlin. Through experience and growth, I have calmed down and gained self-confidence, Rüdiger said For Kicker in February.
The descriptions remind me of another top player who is participating in the European Championships. Portuguese Pepe are the most legendary defenders of the club that Rüdiger currently represents.
– He was my big idol at Real Madrid. I watched videos of him and always wanted to be like him. I was young and I wanted to show everyone that I could be tough too. It’s crazy how good Pepe was, not only in the struggles, but also in building the game, Rüdiger said for Sport1 and revealed he waited an hour to get Pepe’s jersey for his collection.
However, Pepe is best remembered as a madman who could surprise at any time with physical confrontations or violent tackles. Still, he has been described as a surprisingly calm character behind the scenes.
Partly the same applies to Rüdiger. At his best, he starts a fight, stirs it up, and then is the first to calm everyone down.
He is a quick-footed and timely tackler who is able to knock the ball off the attacker’s feet without touching the player at all. If mistakes happen, the foot speed is still enough to catch up again from the back distance.
– It happens intuitively. Fortunately, I’m not terribly slow, so I rarely have to go ashore to tackle. I can solve many problems by running. If I get on the surface of the field, I am one hundred percent sure of getting to the ball. That is one of my greatest strengths, Rüdiger said in 2020.
The collision has calmed down, but Rüdiger is still a model example of a favorite player who is hated by every opposition.
The Premier League superstar slipped into the back pocket
Rüdiger was born in Berlin, but the family’s background is in Sierra Leone, where the parents fled the civil war. In a family of four children, things improved when the older brother Sahr Senesie got a contract with Dortmund. Rüdiger has said that with that he also got his first decent studded shoes.
The professional career that started in Stuttgart progressed for three seasons in the Bundesliga before two years in Italy in Roma’s defense. The breakthrough to the world’s elite took place in London’s Chelsea. Now the second season at Real Madrid is behind us. With that, Rüdiger already conquered the fourth of the five best football leagues in Europe.
The toughest measure of any top scorer in the 2020s has been Manchester City’s goal stick Haaland. For him, Rüdiger has started to become a troll.
Madrid and City have met in the semi-finals of the Champions League twice in a row, and Madrid have progressed both times.
Last year, Rüdiger kept Haaland in check in Madrid after being given the main task of guarding the Norwegian. However, City scored four goals in the second leg with the German defender on the bench.
In the first leg, Haaland only touched the ball 21 times, the fewest in his City career up to that point.
This year coach Carlo Ancelotti corrected his mistake. Rüdiger played both matches, and Haaland didn’t hit once again.
The match in Spain was even more boring than the previous one, because Haaland touched the ball 20 times. To top it all off, Rüdiger was the last and decisive shot in the penalty shootout that sent Madrid to the final.
– The Haaland game was my most important match. After that, everyone knew that I am not a follower, but a leader. That’s what I wanted to strengthen this season, Rüdiger told Kicker.
Leadership roles are also available at the European Championships. Germany won their first two matches and secured the next place quickly. The defense hasn’t been tested yet, but when the playoffs start, the setup will probably change.
– Against tougher players, you have to defend more in the low block. It emphasizes the number of games and defending one’s own penalty area. There will be more situations under more pressure. That’s where toppers are usually put to the test, says Arajuuri.
Then it is also Rüdiger’s time to step forward. Head coach during the Chelsea years Thomas Tuchel described him as the leader of his dressing room. At Real Madrid, Ancelotti has also repeatedly brought up Rüdiger’s attitude and tough, but rambunctious nature.
Coming to the home games under dark clouds, Germany now looks ready to fight for the European championship. It suits a player who is used to an unreasonably high level of demands in Madrid.
– Our great strength at Real is that we never lose faith in ourselves, even in defeat. The national team is the opposite. Heads fall immediately after the first encounter. It has to change, Rüdiger demanded at Kicker in the winter.