His strength is literally his strength. When we press well it means that the second the other team breaks free of our forwards they have this giant fucker charging at them. And Rodri really goes in at full pelt and reads things cleverly in those scenarios. Tonight's opening spell was another game where when we've looked good Rodri has looked dominant.I thought he started well and faded a bit but i found his performance encouraging enough on the whole. Good to see him using his size and putting himself about a bit cos he's a big guy and if he's up for it he looks like he could be a force. He moved it quickly and positively enough tonight for me
Excellent points as they amply proved tonight for anyone open minded enough to watch without pre-judging.Rodri is really good at winning the ball high up and stopping the counterattack before it happens.
Thats a double edged sword for him because he doesn't get credit for stopping a counter when it works and if he gets passed around (usually due to bad pressing further up the pitch) then he is caught miles too high to stop the counter and that's one of the reasons people think he is slower than he is.
I actually really liked when we played him as the 8 and Gundogan as the last midfielder back, he was great at breaking stuff up in midfield still and Gundogan is more creative from deeper and cuts out passes well.
Not remember this one?
One day he will score a worldie.