Here is a write up about him in the Real game recently by an SC poster called Kabouls Forehead. Makes for good reading:
Here we go. Fazio vs Madrid, Super Cup. #2 playing LCB. All given in good faith and I have not ignored his faults/errors to make a point. I have no agenda as until now I had never focused on him ENTIRELY in a game. I didn't watch the game, I watched him. All written in good faith. Hope you all find this insightful and please share.
-Giant of a man. Drifts into fill LB at the right times. At corners, uses strength rather than jumping ability to win headers. Won almost all headers from corners that weren't played short or failed to get passed near post.
-drops the deepest out of all CB's, operating as almost a CB/Sweeper hybrid. ALWAYS instructing his defensive colleagues and physically pointing out potential danger.
-looks to pass forward and opts to pass short only as a last resort or to allow his team time to slot back into positions.
-outstanding reading of the game to intercept a 25yard pass to Ronaldo and then surges forward to the pitch centre before displaying great strength and ball control to fend off Pepe with ease before releasing the ball forward accurately.
-darts forward 3-4yards with relatively impressive acceleration to head clear a ball from a corner. Absolute powerhouse who even Pepe and Ramos seem to shy away from having a mid-air tussle with.
-deflects a Bale long shot as he jumps and turns away from the shot. Not as brave as I would like from a CB 'hard man' but hey, this is a Bale shot and he was only standing 5 yards away.
-shows at least twice that he can head clear, from a corner, the ball 35 yards up the pitch.
-whistle is blown for offside but not before Fazio launches his body in an attempt to block a Ronaldo close range shot, which turns out to be a dummy, leaving Fazio helpless on the floor. But hey, don't forget the "Ronaldo factor".
-love this. Ref calls captains Pepe and Fazio over to ask them to tell their players to chill. fazio dwarfs Pepe and the Madrid "hard man" looks **** scared of Fazio and I'm absolutely Serious about that:usually he is mouthing off.
-Fazio almost wins the header from a Seville corner, but it's no surprise he doesn't because he was assigned to be TRIPLE marked and still almost made the ball his. True monster of a player.
-Fazio superbly heads the ball over the Seville bar from nearly off the line from a tricky Coentrao cross. Beaten on the turn by Ronaldo due to Ronaldo's excellence rather than Fazio's inability.
-at no real fault for Ronaldo's later goal as he was rightly marking Benzema following a truly gorgeous cross from Bale.
***BIG POINT***--- if Fazio wasn't also having to think for his 3 defensive colleagues and always pointing out danger to them perhaps he would be allowed more time and more concentration span to allocate to his own defensive duties. Partnered with a more reliable Verts may allow Fazio to do his own job [even better] without having to also think for his teammates.
-Final point from the first 45mins, and you won't believe me but here goes. Fazio (hereby called "Fastio") and Ronaldo are both sprinting back down towards Seville's goal and Fazio OVERTAKES Ronaldo. At a calculated guess, I'd say Ronaldo was running at 90% top speed with Fazio at 100%, but still very impressive from the big man.
-Fazio leaps but somehow misses a header to clear a cross. Almost leads to a big chance and was a header well within his reach.
Not many tackles to win, but great intercepting and strength. These two things, coupled with his heading, are his strong points. Oh and his fear factor.