GRAEME SOUNESS: My ultimate Premier League holding midfielder - and why my stats are better

Rodri made it a record 60 consecutive games unbeaten for Manchester City this week and underlined why he is the best holding midfield player in Europe.

He is certainly the best since his predecessor Fernandinho, who was a real class act — one I’d rate as the best we have seen in the Premier League.

Given it was my position you’d expect me to say this, but it was always the most undervalued role. Now, with greater TV scrutiny, people have woken up to its importance.

We always say you need a good spine in your team. Well, Rodri is the spine of the spine.

It’s not a position you play on instinct like a striker, it’s a thinking position. Your first thought is, ‘Where is the danger?’ If we lose possession, ‘Where are we vulnerable?’ You break up the play, whether fairly or unfairly. Fernandinho was a master of that and Rodri has learnt well.

You try never to expose the defenders behind you and take as few touches as possible, so allowing the goalscorers in front of you to have more time and space to win you the game.

In my mind, even though I could pass the ball and be creative, I always thought that my defensive duties were the priority. Rodri seems the same. His role in City’s press is key to how they play.

Pressing isn’t new. We used to call it ‘closing down’ and Ronnie Moran at Liverpool would say the team that ‘closes down’ the best, or more simply ‘works the hardest’, wins the league. In City, Liverpool and Arsenal, we have the teams that work the hardest right now. But pressing isn’t just about hard work and wanting to do it, it’s about playing the game in your head and Rodri does that part better than anyone.

Pressing at its best is when your players move as one, as if they have a rope tied around their waists. One goes, they all go. One switches off, it breaks down. When Erling Haaland or Julian Alvarez are closing down a centre back, Rodri is already assessing the options that centre back has and is shutting that option down. He is excellent at reading the game.

He’s a big guy yet he gets about the pitch. He doesn’t have to make too many 50-yard recovery runs because City don’t give the ball away too often.

But what I also like about him is that, when he is on the ball, he is prepared to fizz it forward, to take a risk. Too many midfielders today will point to their high pass completion stats and say they’re doing a great job. The problem is the majority of those passes are in their own half and going sideways. Rodri isn’t happy with going square, he makes meaningful passes into the danger zone.

He protects his back four really well, rarely stepping out of position. I’d say probably him and Declan Rice are the best in the country at that.

The one criticism I’d have is that he should score more goals. I averaged around one every seven games and he’s one every nine. On today’s pitches and in this team, he should be doing better but he’ll know that.

If you have to compare him to other holding midfielders of the modern era such as Claude Makelele or N’Golo Kante, I’d say Rodri is on a different level as he is much better on the ball. But the real time to judge him will be at the end of his career and that’s shaping up well.

Liverpool will put City under pressure like few other teams on Sunday so he will have to be at his best. Even if it’s 0-0, I bet it will be a fabulous watch.

Pep Guardiola says he doesn’t know where City would be without Rodri but they do possess some other great players.

In Phil Foden, City have someone destined to be a superstar. The only things that will prevent him are if he stops turning up for work every day wanting to learn something new and develops a big head, or if he picks up a bad injury.

He had fantastic natural ability when he came onto the scene and now, at 23, he has greater knowledge so can be used anywhere across midfield.

He definitely has the qualities to become Kevin De Bruyne’s successor as City’s main provider of goals and will become one of the first names on the England teamsheet. You can jot him down alongside Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice. What a midfield trio for the next decade that will be. And it’s only going to get better.

Blue cards would wipe out diving in two weeks

Ask anyone what frustrates them most about football and I guarantee it’s diving.

That and backchat to referees are the stand-outs that irritate both supporters and football people alike. FIFA missed a trick last week when they knocked back the idea of blue cards. ‘It’s a red card for the blue card,’ their president Gianni Infantino said. Well, for me, install them in the Premier League and you would eradicate diving in two weekends.

I was at an event with former managers and players in Scotland last week and we were all talking about this issue. We know how it plays out: a player goes down trying to get someone in trouble and he screams and rolls around as if his leg has been broken in three places. Then all his mates surround the referee and put him under pressure to get someone sent off. It’s not a good look.

If FIFA allowed a blue card for diving or dissent where you lose a player, even for a short period of time, that man disadvantage on occasion would cost teams dearly. They’d soon clamp down on the theatrics and then that filters down to grassroots.

The Premier League is the most watched, most loved league in the world, set the example there and others will copy.

This current scenario is unsightly and it’s un-British. Our league was always revered for its honesty. Let’s make it honest again.

Thomas Tuchel broke his toe kicking the door while giving Bayern a pre-match talk for their win over Lazio this week. It seemed to work but it’s unique to do it before a game. Afterwards is different. I put my foot through a TV in the dressing room at Dunfermline when I was upset at Rangers and I threw tea and sandwiches after a game against Hibernian. The players weren’t happy as it was all over their clothes. I recall Jack Charlton was lively after a game or two at Boro. He’d throw cups, sandwiches, anything and everyone was scared of him. You were just glad he didn’t throw the contents of his Range Rover as that was usually full of smelly fish or rotting pheasants.

Klopp and Pep are too lovey-dovey

It is the last Premier League encounter between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola and arguably the most important as the outcome could determine the league title. Not that we will see them falling out as they respect each other too much.

They are two fabulous managers with two fabulous teams but their era has all been a bit of a lovefest. I wouldn’t say it’s been a rivalry like Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, as I can’t recall them ever falling out.

Liverpool and City were two different jobs when they came in as managers. When Pep arrived, City had won the league recently with a very good squad put together at great cost, whereas Jurgen made Liverpool champions and consistent challengers on a far smaller budget