He did. Both Pep and Rodri himself have commented since how he wasn't doing the basics right at the start and just how much he has improved. The main criticisms of him early doors were his backwards first passing and his positional play both with and without the ball. They were legitimate criticisms back then, those are his strengths now.
I'll try not to take over this thread, but I've shown with historical facts how Todri was always very good from day 1.
Yes he is better now ( i.e World Class) as opposed to being just very good in his 1st year.
A significant portion of his improvement has been on offense. I.e. assisting, scoring goals and driving forward with the ball.
Possession wise, tackling, interceptions, pass completion, blocks etc his numbers have always been consistently similar from day 1. It's thT added magic that has taken him from very good to great.
The real problem was that many here at the time had Fernandihno tinted glasses on and were always unimpressed that he lacked similar speed and crunching tackle.
He was always very good. It just took many a couple of years to recognize it.
Short memory... his first half of his first season here he was off a step and there were many here slagging him off as a bad buy. He righted the ship but he didnt hit the ground stellar with us.
Yes. He had a few bad games mixed with a lot more good ones. Went about 5-1 good games to bad ones.
But when folks have tinted lenses on, all they see are the bad games.
I was doing good games vs bad games count back then. And pointing out how it wasn't even close. And it wasn't just me. There were many. So it wasn't me being a happy clapper. He was very good. But some didn't wanna see it.
I called it the Fernandihno loyalist stand.
