You can never rest as a Plymouth Argyle fan, particularly when you’ve given yourself the unenviable task of analysing every new signing sailing in the Pilgrims’ direction.
The regular transfer window may be closed, but Argyle have decided to act in the free agent market. On Wednesday, after some brief rumours of a trial, Joe Ralls was officially confirmed as a new arrival at Home Park. The 32-year-old midfielder, who had previously spent the entirety of his professional career contracted to Cardiff City, has signed a “short-term contract, initially until January” with the Greens.
Before getting into the details, this feels like good news. Argyle’s season has been catastrophic thus far, and some action was needed. I’m personally in favour of dispensing with Tom Cleverley’s services but, even if the head coach were replaced, it’s clear the squad assembled by the end of August isn’t good enough for Argyle’s ambitions. I’ve been banging the drum for entering the free agent market, and signing Ralls is a step in the right direction.
So, will his arrival be this season’s Toumani Diagouraga moment, with a midfielder transforming a relegation-threatened side and easing pressure on the head coach? Or will this turn out to be 2025/26’s version of hiring Mike Phelan? Let’s investigate Ralls’ numbers to see what we can unearth.
Technical competence
At 32, Ralls unsurprisingly has a wealth of experience. And it’s notable that all this experience has come at a high level. He made a total of 409 appearances for Cardiff, 28 of which came in the Premier League. And, when you add in his loan spell at Yeovil Town when they were in the second tier in 2013/14, Ralls has made a total of 395 Championship appearances too. In fact, his spell with Argyle will be the first time he’s ever played below Championship level.
For the stats in this piece, I’ll focus on the 56 Championship appearances he’s made over the last two seasons. That’ll be beneficial for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’ll give us more of an indication of the sort of player Ralls is now, rather than what he was a decade ago. Additionally, his trajectory has closely followed Argyle’s across the last couple of years. Ralls’ Cardiff were disappointing but survived in 2023/24, before being relegated to League One a year later. The parallels are obvious.
Looking at that data, it’s immediately clear Ralls is a player with plenty of technical talent. On the spectrum of Argyle midfielders, he’s probably far closer to Law McCabe than any other in the way that he likes to dictate play and work the ball forward from defence to attack.
The number of passes Ralls completes is impressive in its own right. Across the last two years, he’s completed an average of 39.27 passes per 90 minutes in the league. Compared to Argyle’s players this term, who bear in mind have been playing in a lower division, that’d rank second, with only Mathias Ross posting a higher figure.
| Player | Passes Completed per 90 |
| Mathias Ross | 47.29 |
| Joe Ralls* | 39.27 |
| Brendan Galloway | 38.52 |
| Ayman Benarous | 34.16 |
| Alex Mitchell | 30.29 |
| Brendan Wiredu | 30.20 |
One of the particularly encouraging aspects of Ralls’ passing is how often it can be crucial in attack. His last two Championship seasons have seen him complete an average of 1.68 key passes per 90. That’s more than anyone in Argyle’s ranks managed last term, and this year it’s beaten only by Xavier Amaechi and Jamie Paterson, both of whom are working with a significantly smaller sample size.
Ralls boosts that number through his crossing ability, and the hope will be that it adds a new dynamic to Argyle’s attack. His crosses completed figure per 90 across the last two years is identical to his number for key passes: 1.68. To put that into perspective, that would top anyone at Argyle last term, narrowly edging out Tymoteusz Puchacz (1.58) who practically did nothing but cross during his time at Home Park.
In possession, Ralls’ numbers are encouraging. He’s comfortable working the ball from back to front, and will be important in retaining possession whenever required. But he’s also a creative threat, and should give Argyle’s attack more bite by putting in dangerous crosses for the likes of Lorent Tolaj. Given Cleverley’s side have only scored one open play goal in five games, Ralls can hardly be a hindrance.
Huge set piece benefit
Ralls is a creative threat from open play, but it’s far from the only string to his bow. As Cleverley himself has mentioned since the 32-year-old’s arrival was announced, Ralls’ delivery from set pieces could prove to be a significant attacking weapon.
I want to take you back to the 2023/24 season. Between both boxes, Cardiff were nothing special. On an expected points basis, they ought to have been flirting with relegation throughout the campaign. However, as we covered ahead of Argyle’s meeting with Cardiff in January 2024 (Ian Foster’s first home league game in charge, which feels like an age ago), the Bluebirds were the set piece team of the league. It remarkably dragged them to a top half finish.
Ralls’ set piece deliveries played a key role not only in Cardiff’s goalscoring, but arguably in keeping them in the division a season longer than they deserved. He got a total of seven league assists across the campaign, a remarkable five of which came from corner situations. As they all demonstrate, he seems to have a knack for putting the ball into the most dangerous area to be attacked.
For example, the first of the five came against Coventry City. Ralls managed to whip the ball in at a perfect height for Dimitrios Goutas to head home.
He set up Goutas once more against Huddersfield Town. Notice how the ball is perfectly weighted to beat the first man but still give his main target the opportunity to stoop and head home. Same again at Huddersfield on Saturday?
Goutas wasn’t the only beneficiary. In a Severnside Derby against Bristol City, the odious Perry Ng gave Cardiff the lead from another well-placed Ralls corner.
One key element to be considered here is that, as the highlights show, Ralls is left-footed. I don’t think Matty Sorinola’s set piece deliveries have been as bad as some have suggested, but always having a right-footer taking these kicks does make them somewhat one-dimensional. Not only do Ralls’ deliveries appear superior, he also offers another angle, which can surely only help.
Of course, set pieces need to be attacked once they’re played. Aside from Tolaj, there’s nobody in Argyle’s ranks who can really be trusted to score on a consistent basis. But perhaps that’ll change with some quality deliveries.
Certain limitations
We’ve explored the sort of player Ralls is. To fully understand him and how he’ll fit into Argyle’s side, we also need to consider the sort of player he isn’t.
For example, Ralls does not appear to be the sort of player who’ll bring goalscoring from midfield. He’s scored 37 goals across his entire career, roughly one every 12 games. He’s scored just once in the last two years, and only built an xG figure of 1.13. I’m hopeful he can have a similar influence in general, but I’m not expecting any Diagouraga-esque late winning goals.
Ralls also doesn’t appear to be a particularly strong combative midfielder. His recent ground duel success rate is 45%; whilst that isn’t disastrous, it’s still at the disappointing end of the scale. His aerial duel success rate of 57% is surprisingly impressive, although less vital for a central midfielder. Ralls has contested 237 ground duels across the last two league seasons, compared to 60 in the air.
To be fair, I don’t think Ralls is the sort of player to shy away from challenges. Rather, he’s simply not as good at tackling as he’d like. His recent implied tackle success of 69% is relatively poor, whilst he commits significantly more fouls per 90 (1.99) than he wins (0.44). He’ll put himself about, but there always seems to be a danger of overcommitting.
So, where does this leave us? I can’t escape the idea that Ralls shares many qualities with McCabe. They may be at separate ends of their respective careers, but both prefer showing off their abilities in the technical rather than physical side of the game. Could they line up together? It’s possible, but unlikely, and it feels like a combination Cleverley would want to avoid like the plague.
In theory, I wouldn’t mind seeing a switch to a 4-3-3, with McCabe sitting deep and Ralls playing ahead of him alongside one of Malachi Boateng or Bradley Ibrahim. However, that would come with the trade-off of losing Bali Mumba’s influence at left wing back, and Argyle currently have no fit left backs. Truthfully, there is no perfect solution.
This is where I have genuine sympathy for Cleverley. Even with Ralls’ arrival, the squad is horribly unbalanced, and that’s not the fault of the head coach. Behind the scenes, Argyle have built a squad for various head coaches that, in the end, appears suited to nobody.
Cleverley has every reason to fit Ralls into his side, but it’ll be far from straightforward.
Injuries, and a view to the future
Whilst delving into the free agent market was a necessity, it also clearly comes with risks. Ralls appears to be a smart signing; if he arrived over the summer I certainly wouldn’t have been opposed. However, there’s clearly a reason he didn’t pick up a club immediately after leaving Cardiff, only now signing for the side sitting 22nd in League One.
I regret to say that injuries have played a role. I’ve been using the last two league seasons as a basis point throughout this piece, and as mentioned that does involve 56 Championship appearances since the start of 2023/24. However, to put that another way, he’s missed 36 league games across the last two years. They won’t all have been because of injury, but plenty were.
Let’s keep this in mind whenever the Argyle hierarchy look for sympathy. All year, we’ve been hearing excuses about how injuries have been holding the Pilgrims back. And maybe that’s true…but I’d argue it’s a direct result of Argyle signing a small squad of injury-prone players. In Ralls, the early indications are they’ve signed another one.
I don’t think that’s necessarily been the case throughout Ralls’ career. You don’t become a Championship regular, with appearances in the top flight, without being able to stay fit. I do, however, wonder if playing over 400 professional games in the top two tiers has started to take a toll on his body.
I think there are clear parallels between Ralls and Paterson, with the only real difference being that Paterson arrived over the summer rather than this week. Paterson’s numbers in the Championship, particularly during 2023/24, were eye-catching, and there was a general impression that if he could still play to that level he’d be superb for Argyle. However, fitness issues have stuttered his start, and I’m sure he’ll be disappointed with his limited contribution thus far. Could Ralls head in the same direction?
Of course, I hope not. I hope to be in a position in a couple of months where I’m thrilled by his contribution and desperate for his contract to be extended beyond the “initial” period until January. Indeed, if he can hit his 2023/24 levels, I can certainly foresee that happening. Ultimately though, we just don’t know whether he still has that ability.
Ralls looks like a smart pickup on paper, but there’ll be a huge asterisk until we actually see him on the pitch.