#16 | Rodri - 2020/21 Performances

[samarasra]

Whatever issues Rodri (or Gundogan I suppose) have, it's just not constructive to compare him to this imaginary Fernandinho, who is supposed to have the defensive might of Kanté, combined with the metronomic ability of Busquets, combined with the playmaking skills of Pirlo. He has been a great DM I must say, but his abilities are artificially inflated more than most, probably due to his workrate (which in fairness has been phenomenal, on and off the pitch).

It doesn't do Fernandinho any favours either. Because whenever he comes back into the team and plays at the exact level he's supposed to people act like he's had this massive fall from grace, when he hasn't.


It's been similar to discussions on Jesus and Aguero, whereby Aguero never misses a chance, single handedly wins every big game, is a perfect link up player and so on and so on. It's not true, and it only makes people mad at Aguero when he comes into the team and isn't absolutely flawless (although personally it's more forgivable as Aguero has a decade of brilliance behind him).

Excellent common sense post, another voice of reason.

 

[samarasra]

This analysis has some interesting things to say about Rodri, including pointing out that he created the equaliser. Worth a few minutes IMO.

Tactical Analysis: Manchester City 1 Liverpool 1 - Coaches' Voice

Liverpool and Manchester City could not be separated as the 2020/21 title race was thrown open to Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham

www.coachesvoice.com

Excellent link and wow a picture of Rodri making a forward pass, that should be an eye opener for some regular posters who claim he only passes sideways or backwards. Sky have so many experts commentating on the game and rambling on that they often can go through a long passage of play without mentioning the names of the players. It was very noticeable yesterday, how often Rodri made interceptions, tackles and passes without a mention, could this be why some posters don't fully appreciate or blatantly ignore the good work he does but a coach recognises it.

 

[mccity]

Excellent link and wow a picture of Rodri making a forward pass, that should be an eye opener for some regular posters who claim he only passes sideways or backwards. Sky have so many experts commentating on the game and rambling on that they often can go through a long passage of play without mentioning the names of the players. It was very noticeable yesterday, how often Rodri made interceptions, tackles and passes without a mention, could this be why some posters don't fully appreciate or blatantly ignore the good work he does but a coach recognises it.

The bold made me chuckle, kudos.


As for the italicised, are you talking about Rodri? Or Gundogan? Or Jesus? Or Sterling? Or.....

It's almost as if a player can do both good AND bad things in a match. A player can contribute on a bad day, or not on a good one. A player can do one thing right and another wrong. It's almost as if it's complex or something. Mad!

 

[Craig]

You cannot compare them for one simple reason. Ferna is 34 and all his past performances can be assessed. What was he like at 24. Rodri is 24 near the start of his career, when he is 34, only then can you compare them fairly. It's like comparing Delap with Harry Kane, we won't know what sort of career Delap will have until the end of it. There are many reasons why the team has "dropped off", one is they are a new team not the title winning team people want to compare them with.

Yeah, at 27 Rodri Will suddenly become mobile.

 

[mccity]

Yeah, at 27 Rodri Will suddenly become mobile.

Well he might not need to be if his other skills develop nicely enough.

And besides, whilst it's good to have, is mobility the be all and end all? Barry was less mobile than De Jong, and about as mobile as Rodri is, but he made it work. I hate to use him as an example but United won trophies with Carrick, who sauntered around the pitch. Xabi Alonso was adored by Liverpool fans for how good he was despite never moving much.

 

[WNRH]

Funny this is supposed to be some sort of counterpoint but actually reinforced the post you replied to.

Navas, Garcia and Kepa are in the team because of their ability on the ball. How this somehow proves Rodri is poor on the ball I am not sure, could you talk me through the logic.

Or is the post simply 'Spain have some shit players therefore Rodri is also shit'?

Nonsense, they are in the Spanish side as there is no one better to select. If Cancelo, Dias and Ederson were Spanish, they would be playing instead of the aforementioned three average players.

The response of he's a good player because he plays for Spain is factually incorrect. Just like saying Declan Rice is a good player because he plays for England, a national side currently better and ahead in the rankings than the Spanish.

Judge the player on his performances for his club and not where he was born and his performances for his club where he was a record signing have been ridiculously sub standard and is a huge reason why we are so slow and pedestrian right now.

 

[Craig]

Well he might not need to be if his other skills develop nicely enough.

And besides, whilst it's good to have, is mobility the be all and end all? Barry was less mobile than De Jong, and about as mobile as Rodri is, but he made it work. I hate to use him as an example but United won trophies with Carrick, who sauntered around the pitch. Xabi Alonso was adored by Liverpool fans for how good he was despite never moving much.

True but the last 2 you mention were much better footballers than Rodri

 

[Deleted member 77198]

You are bang on with Rodri and Jesus being compared with their predecessors.

In a season where we have lost 1 game and looked the best defensively we have for many years it is somehow solely the performances of the defensive midfielder we aren't top of the table.

The 5 attacking players in front of him should be the ones getting the stick as our attacking play and finishing has been pretty woeful so far.

Players only don’t get compared to their predecessors if they put in performances on a regular basis to make you forget the predecessor isn’t there.

I barely think about Zaba anymore, I barely think about Hart, since Dias has been in the team nobody has mentioned Kompany...

But at the moment I’m thinking about deJong Barry Yaya and Fernandinho a lot and think they’d all walk into this team, I see Sterling never giving Cancelo the overlap pass he makes the run for and start thinking that even Nasri was excellent at that, I miss Sané, I miss David... because the current players in these positions aren’t good enough.

I agree with your last paragraph. I think Sterling is comfortably our worst player of all our regulars over the last 15 months. Mahrez isn’t good enough. Strikers are always injured.

But Rodri still isn’t good enough neither.

 

[Chak19]

Pep has to try Gundogan at 6 and drop Rodri, the defence is doing well despite getting no protection from these two, so dropping one of them wouldn't change anything defensively, and Gundogan should be the one starting because he's a much better footballer and he plays better as the deepest midfielder and that might solve our attacking problems, the only downside to this is that it would make us more vulnerable in the air, but I think it's worth taking the risk.

I'm just sick of this slow, boring, crap football, we used to create loads of chances but waste them, now we hardly create at all and it has to change.

 

[Bpughh]

Some of you are just clueless.