Rodri makes Steven Gerrard admission and names another Liverpool star in answer to fun debate

Manchester City midfielder may have dominated the football headlines for his comments on players being forced to play too many matches but fans may have missed his comments about two Liverpool legends.

He is already considered as one of the best midfielders in the world after a stellar career with City and he is currently among the favourites to win this year’s Ballon d’Or award after triumphing in the Premier League and European Championships with Spain in the summer. Blessed with plenty of technical ability, vision, quality and a high football IQ, he makes Pep Guardiola’s side tick.

Recent days have seen him make the headlines, however, for speaking about the amount of games that players are currently being asked to play. It resulted in him claiming that players are close to going on strike as he is expected to play until late July due to the new FIFA Club World Cup Championship.

"I think we are close to that," said Rodri, speaking to media when asked if it is possible players will strike. "If you ask any player, they will say the same. It's the general opinion of the players. "If it keeps [going] this way, there will be a moment where we have no other option, but let's see.”

Aside from those comments, he was asked in an interview with ESPN UK to build his ‘ultimate midfielder’ based on key attributes for the position. Those compromised of: passing, vision, skills, IQ, creativity, mentality, workrate and technique. There was a Spanish-heavy influence on his answer as Sergio Busquets was chosen for ‘football IQ’ and ‘passing’, Xavi for ‘vision’, Andres Iniesta for ‘skills’, Casemiro for ‘workrate’ and teammate Kevin de Bruyne for ‘technique’.

Former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso was then selected for his ‘creativity’ and the current Bayer Leverkusen manager displayed plenty of that across his illustrious career at Anfield, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Then, he opted to pick Steven Gerrard for ‘mentality’ which was certainly an appropriate selection. Gerrard was able to pull Liverpool through games single-handedly in his prime against the very best teams and the very best players. Take the 2005 Champions League final for example, or the FA Cup final against West Ham United - Gerrard was and continues to be irreplaceable and sits among the very best to ever play for the club.