#16 | Rodri - 2020/21 Performances

[Dax777]

Must have watched a different match today? Rodri was excellent today. Cool under pressure, decent passing and excellent anticipation. Shame he did not score with his header.

That made me sad. I was hoping he'd put that in

 

[Gundogan's Moustache]

He was ok today but I’m not sure what it is but people skip past him.

I think his body shape is all wrong when he approaches attackers

 

[damrider]

fantastic today. really fantastic. consistently one of our better players.

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

Good. Coz you'd have been doing your usual whinnying :p

Telling it as it is, you mean.

 

[samarasra]

Stats are only a small part of the game and don’t even tell the full story on the actual stat they’re representing.

Show me some stats on speed of his passes being too slow and how many moves they slow down... It’s alright making a successful pass, but what does the actual pass lead to? Was it fast enough to achieve what we needed in a particular move? Were there better passes on? Was it slightly behind or too far ahead of here it really needed to be making the recipient’s job harder? Was a chance worth taking for a different pass that might have ended in giving it away and ruining his stat, but might have ended in a attacking opportunity or even a chance at goal if he’d made it?

The stats don’t show any of that which is why stats and football aren’t always relevant.

Show me some stats on, not just his inability to get back goalside when he’s been run past, but his complete giving up on running back when run past... or the amount of time he stands still when other players have the ball meaning he can’t be passed to nor create a passing space where he should be moving from (Gundogan has moaned at him about this during the game with arm movements telling him to move)... or the quality of his game when other teams try and stifle him because of his lack of pace compared to teams that don’t...

Most of football is non-statistical. It’s not like American sports, where stats are the be-all and end-all.

Yes, stats don't tell the full story, yet you ask for stats to prove the 2 paragraphs of negative comments you make are correct. Other posters have shown stats that match up with what an open minded viewer can see for themselves yet you don't seem to be capable of a balanced comment. You make an interesting point that "he stands still when other players have the ball meaning he can’t be passed to nor create a passing space ", what is wrong with standing still in a game, have you ever watched Messi or David Silva or Sergio stand still when others around them are racing around liked headless chickens, it is part of the game, just like jumping ,running, heading, there is a time for everything, and I am not comparing Rodri to any of them, I am referring to your claim that a standing player cannot be passed to or create a space.

 

[samarasra]

Sure it doesn't tell you everything. No one ever said it did. People are watching the same player and reaching different conclusions. I.e the very information you possess ( i.e. your eyes) I possess that too. Yet we've come to different conclusions about the same player.

Thus, stats suggesting he passes more into the final 1/3 of the field than any other player in the Prem, simply supports one impression of the player

The thing stat does better than our eyes is skip bias. It doesn't overrate the on missed pass here and underrate the quick pass that opened play there. It simply documents.

I would bet my mortgage you didn't know he passed more into the final 3rs than anyone else in Prem. These kind of stats that contradicts ones perception should cause one to pause and re-examine. Not simply dismiss by claiming a straw man no one ever argued.


Here's a thought though, for someone who's so shit at getting goalside or chasing down, we sure are conceding fewer goals than we ever have and fewer chances than we ever did. Why is that? I mean we apparently have an incompetent guy at DM, who leads all leagues in pass completion and leads the Prem in passes into the final third. Sure, he probably is missing passing to the right guy, and taking less risk to pass his stat. And 'some' of our eyes say he is so slow and is never goalside once beaten. Yet we give up so little.

If nothing else, there must be something special about a player who is so incompetent, that he makes everyone else around him work harder than they ever have to cover both his deficiencies and theirs. So much so that they are defending better now than they ever did when they had better players at his and other positions

That surely is an argument some seem to be making. And there certainly are no stats for that. :)

An excellent and fair minded post.

 

[samarasra]

I think today was the perfect example of why he divides opinion so much. 1st half he was as bad as anything I’ve seen at CDM for us for a number of years. 2nd half he was largely excellent.

He had a difficult first quarter hour as did the team overall. You claim a first half as bad as any you've seen. Does that mean that he made no positive contribution to the team's effort in turning that early dodgy performance into a 3 goal half time lead, you certainly don't mention it, that divides opinion.

 

[samarasra]

They wouldn't. The reason they managed to catch him on the ball is because they massively overcommitted to pressing him and killing his passing options. That partially worked because they managed to win possession back, but then all of their players were out of position and we won it back.

After 20 minutes he worked them out and they suddenly looked like they were a player or 2 down when he passed through the press.

That's how I saw it too, 3 men pressing him when he made the alleged back pass, then it was like they deliberately backed off him, or maybe by pressing him they realised how much space that left for Gundogan & DeBruyne.

 

[samarasra]

We are the only set of fans in the world who can't praise our CDM for our huge improvements made defensively

Dias and Stones are treated like Maldini even though they've had very little to do in all the games they've played together

With Gundogan finally getting the praise he deserves it's now time for Rodri to take all the flak

After the shaky start it was great to see Rodri & Gundogan working as a partnership and complementing each other and not getting in each other's way. Gundogan looks fitter than he has been for a long time and with the extra space Rodri makes for him the midfield is I believe developing well as a unit.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Big Rodri fan, but early doors he was a step behind, getting caught on the ball, and giving too many square balls in bad situations.

As he grew into the game, he upped his movement, started moving the ball along quicker and I, too, was gutted for him that his header was saved. Anywhere else, it goes in.

Looks like he can head it as hard as he can shoot it!

Looks to me like he’s going to be our primary midfield lynchpin for the next 5 years.