RODRI MASTERCLASS! | Learn the art of the holding midfielder role

hey guys this is rodri and this is my masterclass [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Broadway today we're going to look at what makes you considered to be one of the best holding midfielders in the game today just to start in a few words if you can how would you describe your job at Manchester City my job yeah not an easy job that's for sure uh yeah I understand my role exactly what the team needs about me my position in the game the what the coach wants about me of course also not only football skills also the mentality the leadership this kind of things with the lads and yeah to this year I'm one of the five captains also so many things as I tell no not an Institute we've looked at three qualities here that are sometimes associated with your game so let's look at each one so the first one's versatility you're ranked very highly for different kinds of passes how important is it for you to be at the base of Midfield and be able to have these options to go short to go along to do through balls well I think it's part of the of the Holy midfielder role to of course to to be safe with the past to to get fluency to the to the team to I think manage all the resistors as a past as you say Left Right have the ability to use both legs um long pass cheap balls I can control any kind of pass as as this sounds next one is discipline this is a quote from your manager he said the holding midfielder has to be there and not move like the driver of a car uh how difficult is it to be disciplined and make sure that you know you don't let yourself get carried away and do something that's going to cause some dangers to the team well I think in in my role as a holding it feel the discipline is is the most important because you have to be 100 in 90 minutes of the game I think I can any player can can can be you know pay no attention on but I think the most important part is the holding figure is the one that organized everyone in his position I I need to know what in the set pieces what my teammates do also if I see something in the pitch that this guy is not doing well I have to tell him because I have the 360 Vision I can see everything so I think that's that's the most important and is a big part of the discipline uh to be always focused on the game the third one is intelligence another quote from Pep he's talking about you saying that you're getting better at reading the game reading the situation and defensively more presence do you feel that your intelligence and your ability to read the game has improved as you've joined City yeah of course the experience gives you all the tools when you when you grow into the game and intelligence is is quite the scene you know it's just the fact to to read what's going on and again to understand what the opponents are doing what we want to do where are the spaces uh then the game changes in many ways so understand when to run when to keep calm this kind of situations that maybe is not the role for other players but is key for the holiday foreign [Applause] much has been made about how cities formation changes depending on whether you're in possession or not in possession could you talk a little bit about your role depending on whether you've got the ball or not yeah of course I think there's there's only two and can be 160 ways of playing because of Pep but uh yeah commonly as a holy midfielder the the main thing is when if someone helps you in the build up like like you see that sometimes many times is the is the fullback that this this job it can be also the midfielder like the last games but some in in our understandings most of the times is the is the fullback um and is an easy job easy task for me when in the build up because I have one more player to to pass and to help me in this situation and when I play along that of course you have more players on front you have more chances to play forward and more more players on front that is easy in this sense but you have one less player in the build up and but this is uh I think is attacking I think you mean attacking so yeah basically when you play with two you have took over the space the the central area that is the the way or the place that the house them has to play with two players and when you are with one what you have to cover more space is a bit what you need what depends on the opponents and yeah I think he's the both systems that we must use there's another clip now which is going to show the same thing here so if you hit play it's just a few seconds and then we'll we'll see examples of both of those so can we talk a little bit about defensive transitions uh how do you react to the transition from when you uh you sit you have the ball so then when you lose the ball how do you react to this yeah I think in in this clip you can you can show uh very easily this is a kind of a contra attack we will lose the ball and we have to come back as you can see it's a very clear four line in the back um you know everyone Ruben is looking all the place that has in in their lines and my job basically is not to lose the central position because the central position um mostly in the area is where the the score most of the goals so you have to force the the teams to play outside and to gain time to to make the people come back and this is my role that's why I'm coming back in in this area uh of course you have to be as as you see line up with the ball even though a little bit more in the back um but of course every every chance is different every situation is different but this is the main thing as you can see uh our key as a team I think is that everyone is involved in family and you can see here I think it's got Abby coming back to to defend the area again changing gundo coming back to his position me so we we are all involved and and it's one of the key things so you never want to be caught in front of the ball if you can help it you always want to be behind the ball of course of course it is I think he's the main main target uh the main thing about a holy midfielder is different the way we defend because sometimes you don't have a mark you just defend spaces you cover other one of the players mistakes as you can you can say like this but I think we will run a lot in this sense of the event the defensive position [Music] foreign we've got two statistics which you rate in the top five in the Premier League this is since you arrived in 2019 one represents on the and on the ball statistic in past completion the other is their recoveries which is off the ball perhaps these two statistics together which you rate so highly at give us a global view of what it is that you do contribute into the attacks and the defense yeah I think the dates are you know are relative it can show you the quality of a player of course there are different qualities I think you know they're great players here as you as I can see but uh of course this here in the successful fast I'm quite far from from everyone because I'm a very uh safe player I think I that's my best quality uh my percentage of passing the I don't miss much passes and it's so important for the team and in the regain of the ball uh yeah I'm quite there of course holding midfielder has to stop the other players Contra attacks situations uh it's I think it's one of the situations I grow most since I came here and I think it's the biggest role my import most important role in the in the team and yeah as I can see uh I'm there and in the stats you have to be that if you want to be the best so yeah happy to see this and as I as I tell it shows you kind of the the quality of the player or the type of player that I am we're going to move to another aspect of your game now um an example of how you bring something different to the team compared to the rest of the the players City often score a different type of goal than this you offer something differently that's why we've titled it a different way to score um of course you've got to remain disciplined and ready for counter attacks so you can't go too far into the box I guess so this is really important that you can come up with some of these goals right it's the the best way that you can contribute to the attacks yeah of course um I understand that I can be involved also in the in the scoring in existing uh I have to be important in in this sense of course I don't arrive much into the box just since pieces or in the frontal areas but I can push myself sometimes because if I go up another Midfield you can see it and you can stay my position uh and yeah I think it's important because most of the games that we play the the teams drops a lot and they they they don't look much in these situations in the The frontal area and I can surprise this year I have one also one goal they disallow me but this kind of situations it's important because I can score goals like this nice okay and then we'll go to the last one if we're going to talk about a master class we can't ignore this game against West Ham from your first season you set a Premier League record for most passes completed in a single game 178 when the entire West Ham team completed 169. to me that's what Total Domination looks like and would you agree that's uh quite an impressive statistic yeah I was surprised that they uh I remember I finished that game I was like whoa this is the first time in my life I was tired to receive balls and balls like and because you're tired some many times to run without the ball and this kind of things I'm tired of having the wall you know and then they show me and make the one one record in the Premier League um yeah of course it talks about the way the team plays the importance of the role of the holding midfielder and the way that I have that myself into the game that I think is is being great since I came so yeah very happy to to see the stats even though I can show you the powerful of our team that a player can do more passes than the whole team together so it talks about the domination of the game that we have obviously a striker is happy at the end of the game when he scores a goalkeeper is happy when they keep a clean sheet what makes you happy at the end of the game it's a good question I'm I'm very happy of course when we win but I'm focused on on my role on what I do of course if I don't miss passes how many balls I regain uh if I'm being descended defensively a key for example the the Liverpool game last year they said I did for me was even more important as I go and this kind of situations make you you know be be proud of what what you do in the game but yeah I think these two things to to be representative and important offensively in the passes not to play always back just you know have a good game offensively with with long balls chips in behind assist maybe one goal and defensively to to adjust and correct all the situations that are in the game foreign

Channel: Man City

Views: 388,597

Keywords: man city, manchester city, mcfc, fifa 22, man city highlights, man city goals, city, man, city vs, man city vs, chelsea man city, man city news, man united, chelsea, liverpool, man city v, city fixtures, city vs united, man city fixtures, grealish man city, jack grealish man city, jack grealish, haaland

Id: dELyG84z7ig

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 22 2022