Rodri’s passing responsibility has increased with the departure of Gündogan, and the addition of Kovacic who gives Rodri the ability to try and make up for Gündo’s offensive output. First of all, before the red card, he was completing the most passes in the league at a 95% accuracy, competing with CBs (especially Lewis Dunk alternating between #1 and #2) in that regard which is pretty impressive considering how much higher he plays in (albeit City are the best ball retention team in history), being right up there for short, medium and long passes.
What’s to notice really is his playmaking this season. After the Forest game, he was second behind James Maddison in total SCA (shot-creating actions) and progressive passes – and he has the most big chances created this season for City (personally not a fan of the BCC statistic) and has the tenth most xA this season. He plays in the most congested areas yet is completing 1.8 dribbles per game at a rate of 81.8%, more than healthy for a defensive midfielder. His key passes and chances created are pretty low, I’m not saying he’s an elite chance creator like a Kevin de Bruyne or James Maddison, but he is super progressive even with the sheer volume of passes he makes, and I haven’t even mentioned his goalscoring.
I don’t think the media realises what we’re watching here. Rodri, since the start of 2021-22 has been a 7.5 minimum in pretty much every game City have played since then and his influence grows every season – I don’t think any DM in history has been as influential ever. With all due respect to Sergio Busquets, he was not directly winning games for his team (I am not doubting his ability in his own third + in the midfield) nevermind the Champions League final or a Nations League final in the same week. Rodri is a Rolls-Royce footballer who will be super consistent in his play while adding goals too especially in “the clutch”.
I personally (my preference) have never rated goalkeepers, defenders or defensive midfielders higher than forwards (including attacking midfielders) because I felt their influence wasn’t as much as theirs (Cannavaro or Buffon winning the Ballon d’Or over Thierry Henry or Ronaldinho in ’06 will always be a disgrace to me) but there are exceptions, like Neuer and Alisson who directly stopped about 11 extra goals in a season with elite distribution, Virgil in 18/19 and now Rodri, and if your eyes somehow can’t see it, in the Premier League so far this season, he’s the 3rd highest rated player on FotMob (8.00), 2nd highest rated player on Sofascore (8.05) and 3rd highest rated player on WhoScored (7.62).
And he’s still improving at 27 years old.
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