Speaking to Pep Guardiola earlier this year about Rodri, it’s fair to say he wasn’t expecting this. “If holding midfielders start to gain recognition from Erling Haaland and Kevin (De Bruyne), we will have problems,” Guardiola said. Sky Sports.
“Defensive midfielders should never be in the spotlight. Defensive midfielders should think for the other team and not expect recognition. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. But the spotlight should belong. to others.”
Talks with Bernardo Silva in the summer also came to mind. The ultimate team man himself, he despises the individual trinket. Not for him Trent Alexander-Arnold claims that the Ballon d’Or is the most coveted prize.
“I give that award a significant amount,” he said Sky Sportsleave little doubt in the view. “We play a collective sport but the individual award always goes to the striker because he has the final touch,” he said.
“But if you understand the game, the people inside the game, players or managers, know how important it is to have the right goalkeeper, the right defender, the right midfielder and the right striker, no. only proper striker. Strikers don’t just win titles.
“Look at the team that won the title. The base comes from a very good defense. If you defend well, you will attack better. So when I look at individual awards and only see people who score goals win, I feel like. that does not represent the sport we are doing well.”
And yet, here we are. Rodri. Ballon d’Or winner. In fact, he may have been even better the previous season, playing a key role in Manchester City’s historic treble and scoring the winning goal in the Champions League final. But glory with Spain changed everything.
Named as the best player at Euro 2024, it feels like part of the belated realization that this is the man responsible for getting the best team – at club and international level. Goals still attract us. But Rodri was something that was hard to ignore.
Picture City in possession and you will picture Rodri, spraying left and right, the ball rarely goes through some of the return to the right place at his feet. He had over 4000 touches of football in the Premier League last season. It’s a record.
Metronomic use of the ball makes the game look easy. It is not. He receives passes under such pressure that smaller players would be afraid to do anything. He grabs a marker, puts it over his shoulder and walks away.
There are numbers for everything in football today and some of them help to articulate what the eye can see. There are 2068 of Rodri over the last season played when under pressure, 500 more than the next person on the list. They work in tight quarters.
However, he rarely gives up the ball. Tracking data allows us to calculate how difficult a pass a player attempts based on the location of the opponent. It seems that Rodri’s pass is very easy, but there is a lot to lose.
However, the data reveals that of the 119 players who made more than 1000 passes in the Premier League last season, Rodri had the highest number of passes. above what you would expect from that pass – 6.79 percentage points higher.
His former is more ambitious than it appears. He ranks among the top five players in the Premier League for line breaking passes. Alongside playmakers Martin Odegaard and Bruno Fernandes who took risks, there was Rodri, searching.
And he works in extra measure for others. The number of chipped passes being higher than other players may seem like just a stylistic quirk but it is open in its own way. Rodri can move between or through. Every club in the bag.
For those who prefer more important stats, there were also eight goals and nine assists in City’s Premier League title campaign. Only five players in the competition could do better on both counts and they all advanced.
Rodri brought more, of course. much more. No Premier League player has won more possession in the middle of the pitch and his ability to break up counter-attacks helps explain why City have been so surprised by serious injuries.
“Internally, all his friends and staff, they all know how important and defining he is,” Guardiola said. “It’s very important for us. With him, we’re a better team. No doubt. The amount of things he’s helped, he’s irreplaceable now, I say.”
As it seems for a while. In the six games City played against Premier League opposition without Rodri last season, they lost to everyone except Luton. He went unbeaten in 49 with them until being denied twice in the FA Cup final.
There was then a special summer with Spain but this award is bitter-sweet because it fell with him injured. A banner was unveiled at the Etihad Stadium for Inter’s match in September that read, ‘Can we talk about Rodri?’ Four days later, the legs gave way.
But he is now back in the spotlight. The manager and his teammates could only smile as a defensive midfielder who should have been walking in the shadows received an award that should have been given to glory players. Finally, the football world is talking about Rodri.