Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta
Athletic Club · Midfielder · Spain · 2,231 min
Ballity Verdict
What makes this player special?
Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta is the kind of midfielder coaches build possession around. At Athletic Club, his real value is not goals or highlight assists — it is how cleanly he moves the team from safe zones into dangerous ones, almost never giving the ball away cheaply. Ballity's clearest read is carrier: he controls games more than he decides them.
What separates Galarreta from ordinary specialists is breadth inside a coherent family: credible as carrier, and still trustworthy when asked to step toward duel destroyer. That is versatility with a purpose — not a random scatter of average roles.
On the pitch he has actually been used as CM (#8) / AM (#10). That matters: skill-set breadth is one thing; demonstrated deployment is another. Galarreta's authenticity claim starts from those minutes, not from a role board alone.
The trade-off is real: physicality shows up as a structural caveat in the profile. Any club buying the upside has to decide whether that hole is tolerable in their system — or whether they will need complementary players beside him.
Why Ballity says this
- Midfield / role totality: carrier, duel destroyer, deep-lying playmaker
- Shown minutes: CM (#8) / AM (#10)
- Known caveat: physicality
Receipts
- · Player Profile
- · Role Breadth
- · Deployment authenticity
- · Sample · featured
Position
Midfielder
Appearances
34
Great+ roles
2
Age
32
Preferred foot
Right
Height
174 cm
Ballity insights
Peer context vs midfielders — how often they get the ball and what they do with it. Separate from role tiers above.
Usage rate
Share of team touches (non-GK) among midfielders with match data.
15.3% team touches
Peer band · High
Pool percentile
72.6%
Also 67.8 touches/90 (season aggregate).
Efficiency
Output quality per action for midfielders.
62 score
Peer band · Low
Pool percentile
42.4%
Balance & structural weaknesses
How complete this player is on the position's job board — strengths and holes.
How we define this
Two-way = Great+ on ≥2 complementary axes. One-way = every other route Limited/closed. Weak routes = Average holes on complementary axes.
Strong as Physicality (Great)
Weak routes
Stat profile
Within position peers — percentile shape (not role scores).
Versatility Index
Precise 0–100 score — cross-group breadth (67%) plus within-group depth (33%), quality-scaled by tier. Distinct from the shape card below.
Index
29.1
Breadth 16.8 · Depth 12.4
- ·Fullbacks: Playmaking FB (Good)
- ·Midfielders: Carrier (Great), Duel Destroyer (Great), Deep-Lying Playmaker (Good), Box-to-Box Midfielder (Good)
Versatility shape
Coarse directional pattern (Specialist / Dual-threat / Generalist) — not the 0–100 Index above.
Dual-threat
Great Dual-threatDistinct Great+
2 Great+ roles total
Where he plays
Positions with deployment evidence — not statistical guesses.
Natural
Role translations
Where the profile could fit. Tap a position — then see which role style suits it.
Select a position on the pitch to see the best role, alternatives, and evidence.
Role-by-role detail
How each role is scored. Expand a row for a radar of role-shaped stats.
Similar players
Shape match across midfielder roles — cosine similarity of role scores (domestic leagues only). Slot 1 is the best same-league match; the rest are the next closest from the full pool.
Dani Parejo
Villarreal · La Liga
Closest roles
Duel DestroyerΔ2
Deep-Lying PlaymakerΔ11
CarrierΔ18
Michel Aebischer
Pisa · Serie A
Closest roles
- Deep-Lying PlaymakerΔ7
- CarrierΔ16
- Duel DestroyerΔ20
Alexander Prass
TSG Hoffenheim · Bundesliga 24/25
Closest roles
- CarrierΔ6
- Deep-Lying PlaymakerΔ8
- Duel DestroyerΔ13