His progression has been really amazing but is he lacking attributes that put him in the top class category?
He's probably one of the most overrated players in recent memory. I suspect it's because of the stick he got during his first two seasons. He was absolutely wretched during pretty much all of 2011/2012 and 2012/2013. He was poor for most of the beginning of last season as well, then when Stevie got injured, he had to step up in January and boy did he ever. That 5-0 game against Spurs was sort of his coming out party. He bossed the game and was absolutely everywhere. He had a very solid back half of the season after that.
But that's about it. So basically he's gone from being one of the worst buys in recent memory to being a pretty good footballer. And because people felt so sorry for him they tend to overrate his progress now. He's good, but he doesn't have that top class level that we used to have with Xabi, Mascherano, Stevie in his prime etc. He flatters to deceive because he works so hard on the pitch, everyone really wants him to do well in the other departments as well.
But he wouldn't make it into the midfield of any other top four team. And we need top, top midfielders if we're going to be aiming for winning the league year in and year out.
Logged