ajnotkeith
Senior Member
He is good at creating seperation off the ball. If you let him oppose his marker off the ball and create space with his running, he can do it, and he'll often be open.Very true. It's one of the reason Flick's system should work better for him. It's not as positional as Xavi's.
He's more dangerous when he receives the ball in speed, in the channels that he creates with his constant movement. If he has to stop, often stand in his spot and wait for the ball to get to him... he loses a lot of the advantages of his elite workrate.
The problem is the ball slows him down a lot, he is really much slower with the ball than he is without it. So it's best to let him run until he's close to the goal to give him the ball.
However he's also good at playing passes from deep as a playmaker if he has time.