The Premier League is full of amazing midfielders, however, two of the most talked about players in this area are Kevin de Bruyne and Rodri.
De Bruyne always looks like a bright spot on the football field creating lots of moments for his teammates, but Rodri is completely another player.
According to fan VivianRichards88 on Reddit, the Spaniard is the closest we've seen to Busquets. As Vicente del Bosque once said: "You watch the game, you don't see Busquets. You watch Busquets, you see the whole game."
The same thing you can say about Rodri and his role in Man City.
VivianRichards88 wrote: "Great midfielder of PL history, not even a doubt in my mind."
"Paul Scholes was the best passer in PL history but Rodri's output is way better, more passes more key passes higher pass % (obviously not as good long ball but still). The eye test tells you that Rodri runs the show basically every game he plays too."
"Kante is an outlier in defensive ability and metrics but Rodri isn’t too far behind, incredible duel winner in the air, on the ground, in transition, in the press, in the counter-press. Wins a ridiculous amount of duels a game."
"He’s a leader of men, maybe not as loud as Keane but still clearly both a technical leader and a people leader too. Always organizing keeping people in check and high level of shithousery too."
"On top of that he’s a big game player and has scored winners in big 6 matches to win them the league, obviously the CL final winner too."
"You can take the best aspects of Patrick Vieira, Roy Keane, Paul scholes and you put it together and you get Rodri. He’s genuinely the closest we’ve seen to Busquets, maybe not as magical on the ball but defensively more steel and engine to him."
"I can’t see anyone arguing against it at this point."
Some fans agreed with VivianRichards88.
basel99: "Great midfielder of PL history, not even a doubt in my mind."
goudendonut: "He is better than Busquets."
Others, though, considered this analysis one-dimensional.
centralmidfield: "It's baffling how one-dimensional this analysis can be. You cannot analyse a player's output without referring to the system he plays in. Rodri is great and all, certainly one of the best, but lots of what you say is very circumstantial."
This season Rodri scored 7 goals and made 9 assists across 34 appearances for his club.
