They wouldn't buy him because he's shit.
He doesn't fit into our team either.
Record fee midfield players should be absolutely outstanding, able to run games and able to provide game winning moments consistently.
Toure, De Bruyne, Silva levels of ability.
This lad is absolutely nowhere near.
If we were to transfer list him today do you think Europe's top clubs would be falling over themselves to sign him?
Would they fuck and that says it all.
Do you think other teams see him on the team sheet and think "that's us fucked today"?
One game and suddenly our players are all shit.
The difference between Silva, Yaya and KDB is that they played together. Toure had Silva at his best alongside him.
If Rodri had 2 runners alongside him we wouldn't have a problem. You don't need the mobility if you have 2 players willing to run- in a fluid system. You cannot judge him off a game where 3 defensive midfielders have played and De Bruyne played as a number 6? That's completely down to Pep, and nobody else. Barcelona won titles year after year with Busquets in the middle. Busquets wasn't the most mobile but he had players around him willing to run. Your comparison is based on comparing him to Fernandinho which I think is completely unfair. There aren't many Fernandinhos about who could run, break play up and dictate a game at the same time.
The likes of Xabi Alonso and Busquets weren't Fernandinho either. You don't need to be mobile to break play up. Put Rodri in the Bayern team and I'm sure he'd be brilliant. Barry/Makelele didn't need to run they just mopped everything up and had runners around them.
The games Rodri has looked poor in is the games against teams where we've had Rodri, Gundogan and De Bruyne as a 3. That simply doesn't work. Playing Gundogan and Rodri alongside each other does not work. You've got to put players alongside him who are willing to run like Bernardo, foden and KDB.
Take a look at Liverpool for example. Without Henderson and Wijnaldum running for Fabinho he wouldn't look anywhere near as good as he does. Take those two players out of that system and he would look exposed. Put 2 pretty footballers in there who are static and have no defensive capabilities and he'd struggle. I wouldn't have Henderson or Wijnaldum at City but they are willing to run through midfields and chase the ball 30 yards forwards and back to support their defence.
Rodri is a quality player, but he's been used so wrongly by Pep. Against Liverpool at home he was fantastic because he had Foden and De Bruyne doing the running for him. He mopped everything up and separated defence to attack superbly. Either we play Gundogan there or Rodri there. You cannot have both.
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