Manchester City’s loss of Rodri to a serious knee injury has impacted their season.
Not at their freeflowing best, Pep Guardiola’s side struggled to a 2-1 win over Wolves at the weekend and this came after their close win over Fulham and a draw against Newcastle United.
Due to the injury sustained by the Spanish midfielder, Manchester City have been linked with Torino’s Samuele Ricci.
The midfielder has spoken to the official Panini Youtube channel and talked about his role on the pitch. During the interview, he also revealed his admiration for a specific player… none other than Rodri.
He said, as relayed by ToroNews: “I started out as a playmaker, then with [Alessio] Dionisi I started playing as a mezzala, maybe the playmaker is a bit more my style, but I can also play as a mezzala, I have a lot of fun, you have more space to attack and you’re closer to the goal.”
He further spoke further about what he feels his role on the pitch should ideally be: “I take inspiration from Rodri, but I try to take inspiration from everyone, I look a lot at the role of the midfielder, the fact of turning your head which is a very important thing and finding the right space, not dropping too low, which maybe I did wrong in the first games by wanting to touch the ball.
“But then you go and occupy spaces that maybe at that moment aren’t even important, maybe you have to stay higher even by a few meters which are important”.
Ricci speaks very well in the interview and comes across as a very smart player, who has a very good footballing brain.
A trait like that is something that Pep Guardiola always appreciates in a player and Ricci’s admiration for Rodri will do no harm either.
Ricci has enjoyed an impressive season for Torino, playing eight games and operating as the deepest midfielder under Paolo Vanoli. He’s shown an ability to conduct play from deep, construct attacks and also beat the press.
