Craig Burley believes Manchester City have a player who is superior to N’Golo Kante at his very best.
Kante, in his prime is one of the greatest midfielders of his generation.
The Frenchman has won every single trophy apart from the European Championship — playing a massively important role in each of those triumphs.
Rarely has a played emerged in the past decade who has been as influential for both club and country.
A case could be made that in Chelsea’s Champions League-winning team in 2021, their Premier League-winning team in 2017, Leicester City’s famous league triumph in 2015 and France’s World Cup win in 2018 — Kante was the best performer in each of those sides.
Nowadays, Rodri is often compared to the Al-Ittihad dynamo.
- READ MORE: Who is Rodri? Get to know Man City’s modest midfield maestro who won a Champions League final
Craig Burley shares who he thinks is better: Rodri or N’Golo Kante
Previously, Jamie O’Hara has claimed that the Spanish international has surpassed Kante.
However, it would be interesting to discover whether that is the popular opinion.
Much like the former Leicester midfielder, the £62.5 million man also has a similar impact for Manchester City and Spain — as exemplified by how the Sky Blues look in his absence as well as his role in his nation’s recent European Championship triumph.
When quizzed about whether Rodri or Kante is the superior player in a game of ‘start, bench or drop’, Craig Burley sided with the four-time Premier League winner.
Burley said via ESPN FC: “So, I’m dropping, as good as he’s been, I’m dropping N’Golo Kante. I’m benching and as you know, I’m a huge fan of this guy but for the time being, I’m benching Rodri and Sergio Busquets, in his prime in that Barcelona team, in that Spain team was just different gravy.”
“That’s the way I would go about it. I think N’Golo Kante’s a great player but I do think at this moment in time, Rodri is not only Manchester City’s best player but he is Spain’s best player.”
“But for me, it’s going to take some to overhaul what Sergio Busquets did for club and country.”
Rodri is especially a better holding midfielder than N’Golo Kante ever was
As all-round midfielders, the argument between the superior player between Rodri and Kante would be far closer than it is when comparing them as number sixes.
The World Cup winner was a phenomenon — who was arguably the best the game has ever been at winning the ball back and in possession, his carrying of the ball and passing were top-quality.
However, unlike Rodri, Kante was not adept at dictating the game from the base of midfield and being impossible to press in tight spaces when he had the ball at his feet.
The French legend is the polar opposite to midfielders like Busquets or Manchester City’s number 16 — who can also be classed as deep-lying playmakers.
Defensively, Rodri might not be able to cover as much ground as Kante did but regardless, he remains excellent at curbing an opposition’s attacking threat – as exemplified by the fact that he won back possession the second-most number of times at Euro 2024 (41).
The 28-year-old is both a controller and a destroyer of the highest order; a claim that cannot be made about the former Le Havre star — who only spent the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 seasons at the highest level playing as a holding midfielder anyway — before transitioning into a more box-to-box role at Chelsea.
