We look at Manchester City defensive midfielder, Rodri, and compare his first season in the Premier League with his last season in the Spanish La Liga with Atlético Madrid.
At 23, he’s still developing and yet to hit his prime so it is interesting to see how he has adapted to the different environment, both league and club.
Both teams were/are 2nd in their respective leagues which generally means that players will have relative good attacking VPMs for their positions. 2.9 is very good for a defensive midfielder while 2.1 is also a score that you’d like to see from your DM.
Styles of play can account for the differences between the VPMs even though the teams were similarly positioned in their leagues. City enjoy over 60% possession while Atlético, despite finishing second, averaged less than 50% in their league games.
Atlético conceding possession would mean there was more defending to do for Rodri and conversely more attacking to do with Manchester City. His work rate (attempted actions per minute) is 1.18 at City and it was 1.0 with Atlético. Both numbers are quite high but tend to occur at higher-ranked teams.
