Phil Jagielka believes Rodri plays a key role in allowing John Stones to be able to play his signature hybrid role.
Gary Lineker pinpointed how the Englishman showcases “extreme intelligence” to roam into open spaces and get on the ball.
Even Izzy Christiansen claimed that against AFC Bournemouth on Saturday, the 29-year-old made runs akin to those that attacking midfielders make as he “figured out” he was the spare man on several instances during the game.
Phil Jagielka says Rodri plays a “massive” role in helping John Stones execute hybrid role
However, Phil Jagielka, who played alongside a young John Stones at Everton in the centre of defence singled Rodri out as a fundamental reason why his former teammate can play in his signature hybrid role.
“Like Rodri, we can speak about Rodri, his role in John’s [Stones] freedom is massive again. He probably plays centre-half more than John did”, he said on The Football Fill-In show on Ben Foster’s YouTube channel.
“Like filling in or getting an angle of a pass off Ederson.”
Rodri certainly deserves plenty of credit for helping his Manchester City teammate
As intelligent a player as John Stones, Phil Jagielka raises an interesting point about how influential Rodri is allowing him to be able to pull off his hybrid role.
Ultimately, the £63 million (Daily Mail) man’s positioning also tends to be spot on during games, as he knows when to drop back into the centre of defence and when to move forward to hand Stones the room to occupy a certain pocket of space.
In addition, Rodri seemingly ensures that he does not leave John Stones on an island in the middle of the park, both in and out of possession.
The Spanish international always makes himself available in close proximity to the versatile defender to receive a short pass or divide the workload alongside him when it comes to defending counter-attacks in particular.
Stones and Rodri understand each other’s games to a tee, which is why they make for such a brilliant duo.
