I wouldn’t go as far as to call him gash but I don’t entirely disagree. He simply isn’t mobile enough for the role we ask him to play. Additionally It’s all too safe with him on the ball, too many slow sideways easy passes. Fernandinho would pass the ball at a much quicker tempo and would make passes between the lines, he’d also support the attack from higher up too popping up further forward to help with an overload because he had the athleticism to get back if we lost it. Rodri can learn and improve on the latter mentioned stuff, he’s young and it’s his first season but he isn’t suddenly going to become more mobile so we either need to change the way we play to accommodate for that or replace him. I’d rather Gundogan in there at present, not really much worse defensively as neither are quick enough against counters which is our weakness but at least offers something in possession.
