I think Atletico sold him for peanuts. A player of that height ,strength and ball skills should have gone for 100+ .

I don't think any one comes close to him in that position now.

You know, I wasn’t a fan of him when he first joined. I thought he moved too much, and was slow on the turn. I also didn’t think he could eat up ground the way Fernandinho did. A poor man’s Busquets in all honesty.

But his development in these last two years is crazy. The amount of creative responsibility he takes, Busquets never did. Rodri switches the play, breaks lines, one of the best shooters in the world, monster in aerial duels, good defensively, can control tempo, and has the clutch gene. I’ve even seen him pull out step overs and ball carries recently. This guy has become a freak.

The last DM I remember being this creatively involved was Pirlo. And even then Pirlo was given full freedom to run the show while having runners to protect him. Rodri doesn’t really have that so he still has to remain disciplined.

We are witnessing an all timer here. Just needs to rack up a few more CL’s/international trophies, and you’ll be talking about him in all timer DM conversations.

9 goals and 14 assists last year playing as a #6

That’s without him padding his stats from set pieces…all open play. Wow.

In my humble opinion, he is 10x the player Busquets was

They are basically the same player but Rodri has an added element of physicality which allows him to impose himself more effectively further up the pitch.

In my view Rodri is the best player in the world currently, and Busquets was never close to that level. Rodri can decide a game on his own, Busquets wasn't that type of player.

To say 10x better is crazy, but if I do try to ignite my imagination and place Rodri in that Barca 2008-2012 team I can see him doing crazy things, so yeah he is better at his best.

Bet if Rodri is a Barca player bill would rate him as bad as Busquets though

Seriously though put my hands up also, totally wrong about him b4 cos I just didnt see anything special about him for a long while, then suddenly becoming the main man n all rounder, pretty much around the time De Bruyne was injured n someone had to step up?

BarcaLearning wrote:Bet if Rodri is a Barca player bill would rate him as bad as Busquets though

Seriously though put my hands up also, totally wrong about him b4 cos I just didnt see anything special about him for a long while, then suddenly becoming the main man n all rounder, pretty much around the time De Bruyne was injured n someone had to step up?

Stfu, I’m Spanish and I rate all the many many great players we have had including those from Barca, and that includes Busquet. I was just stating the obvious that Rodri is way better than him and the comparison is valid given they played the same position.

As I posted yesterday, our problem in the past decade was we didn’t have any game changers. Now we have three of them; Rodri, Nico and Yamal. Plus I also like Pedri, Gavi and likely in future Cubarsi and Balde.

What I thought Javi Martinez was except Rodri has actually maintained himself at that level and beyond. City's and Spain's actual best player currently imo.

futbol_bill wrote:In my humble opinion, he is 10x the player Busquets was

THIS....okay maybe not 10x. But in my opinion he's better.

Busquet was never considered a top midfielder nor a contender for ballon d’or! His midfield partners were, but not him. With Rodri, it’s the reverse.

Rodri has about as much chance of winning BdO as Kroos.

Didn’t say he would win it, he was a contender.

Luis Enrique's decision to move a prime Rodri to the defense just to make room for a washed Busquets in the world cup didn't get enough criticism imo. One of the reasons they were eliminated early.

How do rate him now??

Spain nearly lost it when he came off

He is Superman

I think if he wasnt subbed off Spain wouldnt have conceded

He wasn't the player of the tournament

Also can we all agree that Zubimendi is out of his depth against the best.

No wonder Dembele played the best football in his career against LaReal

So hes won the Golden Ball right?

Golden Boot shared instead of going to Olmo who had the most assist... cos UEFA just decided so ahead of the final XD

Complete face that he won that award

Lord Awesome wrote:What I thought Javi Martinez was except Rodri has actually maintained himself at that level and beyond. City's and Spain's actual best player currently imo.

You know ball

Well deserved, i was right there all along

Casciavit wrote:You know, I wasn’t a fan of him when he first joined. I thought he moved too much, and was slow on the turn. I also didn’t think he could eat up ground the way Fernandinho did. A poor man’s Busquets in all honesty.

But his development in these last two years is crazy. The amount of creative responsibility he takes, Busquets never did. Rodri switches the play, breaks lines, one of the best shooters in the world, monster in aerial duels, good defensively, can control tempo, and has the clutch gene. I’ve even seen him pull out step overs and ball carries recently. This guy has become a freak.

The last DM I remember being this creatively involved was Pirlo. And even then Pirlo was given full freedom to run the show while having runners to protect him. Rodri doesn’t really have that so he still has to remain disciplined.

We are witnessing an all timer here. Just needs to rack up a few more CL’s/international trophies, and you’ll be talking about him in all timer DM conversations.

A Euros and Ballon d’or since then.

All timer status secured.

Rodri really won player of the tournament in four different competitions since the start of last year pic.twitter.com/8OHfRMz6fb

— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) October 28, 2024