We are very lucky to have a player like Rodri to build our midfield around for years to come. We just have to stop setting him up to failPeople seem to forget that we bought Dihno when he was 28. He was a well established pro who knew his position. Rodders is still learning and for me, is a class act already. I expect big things in the future.
People are expecting a ferny clone but don't realize how special he was in his prime its very hard to find a player with that work rate, pace, good in the air and great at passing. I don't think we could find that player even we tried we wouldn't get all of those attributes. Best thing to do is make sure that gundy and rodri never play together if we can help it unless its against a very slow side. We should try and pair berny with one of them when possible.People seem to forget that we bought Dihno when he was 28. He was a well established pro who knew his position. Rodders is still learning and for me, is a class act already. I expect big things in the future.
Pep did similar with Martinez at Bayern.
Playing someone else to do part of his job when thus far he hasn’t shown he’s good enough to play in our team would be compounding the problem.
Rodri is a big problem for this team.
And the apparent solution is either Gundogan or Fernandinho. Not worked out well thus far.
We played with a 4 man midfield diamond or 5 man midfield (depending upon if u consider walker to be wide CB or a inside side back) - silva,debruyne,delph,ferna and walker.The problem is that if you play another DM next to him that will be at the expense of our attack.
Our best 3 midfield combination were Fernandinho, Silva & KDB
1 Defensive & 2 Creative attacking midfielders
It’ll be interesting to see how him and Partey compare this season. All the noises around Partey are the same as what we had with Rodri when we signed him last season.