#16 | Rodri - 2020/21 Performances

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There's not a DM in world football that is going to be able to protect our back 4 on their own. He needs help. If we are not pressing or nobodies tracking runners then what on earth is Rodri supposed to do?.
When played alongside Dinho and Palmer he was in his element, breaking play, playing forward, carrying the ball, having pops at goal. The first x amount of minutes yesterday, whilst not next to someone else who can defend, we were pressing from the front and he was at his best because he just had to sweep up the stragglers. Then when those in front of him stopped doing their jobs his became 10x harder as it's not just one or two runners he has to stop it's 4 or 5. Again no-ones going to look good when that happens.
 
I think he's a big problem in this team.

He is a good passer, can shoot, can head and is generally strong. He can get his body in the way of opposition players and play out well.

All that said, his lack of pace and mobility is killing us. He looks good against Burnley and Newcastle where there is little intent to attack us and he has time to spray it wide, but when teams spring on us like scolded cats, he's nowhere to be seen. Fernandinho was great at covering lots of ground quickly. He sensed danger and snuffed it out. This is vital in a team that plays as high up the pitch as we do. Fernandinho would take a yellow card if he could not win the ball. Rodri just doesn't have the engine to do this vitally important job. This is why we get exposed on the counter attack time and again. Fernandinho could keep us camped in the opposition half but this guy cannot. This leaves sub-standard defenders like Mendy exposed far too often. Only having our first choice CB pairing saved us from defeat yesterday.

Let's not forget that Rodri was some way down the pecking order of DMs we wanted to sign. In a Simeone team, he works far better in a team that sits deeper. He's closer to the defence and has legs alongside him in the double pivot. He has less ground to cover and his strength and passing up to Griezmann and Co. we're useful commodities. In this City team he is of little use against counter-attacking teams, which are increasing in number now they've noticed this achilles heel. He's a good player but a bad signing for us. Let's not forget we were Centurions with Delph, Otamendi and Stones in our back four. I believe that this is because we had a DM who could cover the ground necessary to keep us constantly in attack. Rodri can't and never will.
 
Very good first half, not so much second. His charging up field to press along their back line just before their goal was suicidal, left a huge hole in midfield that Walker was dragged to cover. Leeds probably should have scored from it but did anyway from the resulting corner.
 
If he was playing for Spurs, where he could just stand there surrounded by defenders, breaking stuff up, he'd look superb.

In our team his lack of defensive game reading & pace gets badly exposed from time to time.

It's not really his fault imo, it's just that we play an abnormal kind of game & teams are getting fitter & quicker, to counter it, making it very difficult for a medium paced big unit to solve it, without being a positional genius.
 
Delphacito said:
Yeah it’s people’s quirk with Rodri here. They all want Usain Bolt as our DM so he can run endlessly and apparently it’ll fix our problem.
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They want a direct replacement for fernandinho but don't realize that it doesn't exist we won't get anyone like that who can do exactly what he can do. This forum also has a fetish for pace can't see past it for some reason.
 
Neville Kneville said:
If he was playing for Spurs, where he could just stand there surrounded by defenders, breaking stuff up, he'd look superb.

In our team his lack of defensive game reading & pace gets badly exposed from time to time.

It's not really his fault imo, it's just that we play an abnormal kind of game & teams are getting fitter & quicker, to counter it, making it very difficult for a medium paced big unit to solve it, without being a positional genius.
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The thing with Rodri is I’m not really sure what he is good at.

Contrary to the belief on here I don’t see him as a good passer of the ball. He’s alright, but he seldom cuts teams open with through balls and his long passes are often very floaty giving the opposition time to reset.

He’s also not quick in distributing the ball. He seems to take ages to get it under control and then decide what to do with it.

He’s obviously not quick.

The only quality I can see he excels at is his physical presence.

I’m not going to completely write him off yet because he may improve as it’s his second season, but in and of himself I don’t think he brings a lot to the table as a midfield player in our team.

With John Stones looking completely lost I would seriously look at turning him into a second choice right sided centre back and buy another midfielder. Pep did play him there at Palace away last year and said he could see him fitting into that position with more work on the training pitch.
 
Thought he had a good game yesterday, won a lot of battles, was trying to break through some lines with running with the ball and threading passes into the forwards.
 
John Wayne said:
I think he's a big problem in this team.

He is a good passer, can shoot, can head and is generally strong. He can get his body in the way of opposition players and play out well.

All that said, his lack of pace and mobility is killing us. He looks good against Burnley and Newcastle where there is little intent to attack us and he has time to spray it wide, but when teams spring on us like scolded cats, he's nowhere to be seen. Fernandinho was great at covering lots of ground quickly. He sensed danger and snuffed it out. This is vital in a team that plays as high up the pitch as we do. Fernandinho would take a yellow card if he could not win the ball. Rodri just doesn't have the engine to do this vitally important job. This is why we get exposed on the counter attack time and again. Fernandinho could keep us camped in the opposition half but this guy cannot. This leaves sub-standard defenders like Mendy exposed far too often. Only having our first choice CB pairing saved us from defeat yesterday.

Let's not forget that Rodri was some way down the pecking order of DMs we wanted to sign. In a Simeone team, he works far better in a team that sits deeper. He's closer to the defence and has legs alongside him in the double pivot. He has less ground to cover and his strength and passing up to Griezmann and Co. we're useful commodities. In this City team he is of little use against counter-attacking teams, which are increasing in number now they've noticed this achilles heel. He's a good player but a bad signing for us. Let's not forget we were Centurions with Delph, Otamendi and Stones in our back four. I believe that this is because we had a DM who could cover the ground necessary to keep us constantly in attack. Rodri can't and never will.
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Harsh summation but possibly fair.
 
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