Rodri - what are we witnessing?

I celebrated him going off at half time. Can’t actually believe how little difference it made :lol: Says more about England I guess..
 
When he went off I thought the stars were aligning for England to nick it. They crumbled instead.

We know that individualities matter less in well-drilled teams with an established identity of play. Spain are a perfect reminder of that.

Pedri injured, Olmo steps up. Carvajal and Le Normand suspended in the semis, replaced by Nacho and 40-year-old Navas. Rodri subbed off at half-time in the final. None of that seemed to trouble them. They won the Euro with Morata not scoring and half of the squad consisting of players from Sociedad and Bilbao.

A remarkable tournament and an example to follow for other nations.
 
It’s no coincidence that Spain finally won again once they got rid of Busquets. Rodri plays DM and he’s player of the tournament. Far better player.
 
We know that individualities matter less in well-drilled teams with an established identity of play. Spain are a perfect reminder of that.

Pedri injured, Olmo steps up. Carvajal and Le Normand suspended in the semis, replaced by Nacho and 40-year-old Navas. Rodri subbed off at half-time in the final. None of that seemed to trouble them. They won the Euro with Morata not scoring and half of the squad consisting of players from Sociedad and Bilbao.

A remarkable tournament and an example to follow for other nations.
Yup.
 
It actually says more about Spain that they can lose the best player in the world and just carry on playing the same style.

yeah that’s also very true but I do feel like if I was an England player and that happened I’d be gearing up the other players going “look Rodri’s off, let’s get at their midfield” sort of thing. That’s something I’d do when playing football at Wembley goals as a 13 year old. England players just sort of did nothing…
I fecking did too :lol: gave it the big one, 2 mins later Spain were in front.
Yup, felt so atupid :lol:
 
Spain improved after he got subbed.

I think correlation rather than causation. They tweaked something at HT and the england press / defence looked completely disjointed after that. I'll wait for the tacticians to watch replays and digest it.
 
It’s no coincidence that Spain finally won again once they got rid of Busquets. Rodri plays DM and he’s player of the tournament. Far better player.
Yeah it’s not like they won anything with Busquets as DM.
 
Busquets never won the Euros, WC or CL without Xavi or Iniesta as the main midfielder. 2017-2023 CL, 2016, 2020 Euros, 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Yeah and Rodri has never won the international competition that truly matters and hasn’t won anything at the international stage without Ruiz, Yamal, Olmo and Williams.
 
I celebrated him going off at half time. Can’t actually believe how little difference it made :lol: Says more about England I guess..
Funnily enough Rodri played a huge role in their first goal. Foden was marking Rodri personally in the first half and clearly was a little confused about how to switch back to zonal pressing…

In end Foden got caught in between Ruiz and Zubimendi, failing to put pressure on either of them, Bellingham got confused by his position and didn’t mark Ruiz fast enough (but already moved too far forward and left Carvajal in behind), then Rice, Bellingham & Shaw were all pointing at each other trying to decide who picks up Yamal… and it all started with Rodri coming off and fecking up that intricate hybrid zonal/individual pressing system that was originally implemented to limit his influence.
 
So do some people here still consider it blasphemy to say that he's as good as Busquets was (or even better), like it was considered in the other thread (about Pep's best 11) ?

For me, the only thing Busquets was better at is controlling possession, Rodri offers much more.
 
Spain were a bit more chaotic without him and struggled at times to play out from the back with their usual short passing through the middle, and relied on long balls from the keeper out wide, that is how they created plenty of good chances.

Zubimendi to me played more like an 8 than a 6, Ruiz had to drop deeper to help out. In the end, they still won, but Rodri to me is different class, especially positionally and defensively.