A left-footed metronome who sits deep and sprays the ball across the pitch with genuine elegance—progressive passing is his calling card, and he rarely loses the ball in midfield. He reads space intelligently and can shield the back line competently. The problem is that his limitations have always been structural: he's not a ball-carrier who bends lines or drives through pressure, and defensively he's a reader rather than a physical dominator, which means he needs a more mobile partner to function in contemporary football.
