Rio Ferdinand has said that Manchester City have someone in their squad who is better than one Real Madrid star.
The two sides are set to face off against each other once again in the Champions League, as the Blues kick off their first-leg quarter-finals match at the Santiago Bernabeu before next week’s second leg at the Etihad Stadium.
Ahead of this big game, one pundit and former player, who knows what it takes to win the Champions League, has shared his thoughts on two particular players who could feature in tonight’s showdown.
Ferdinand picks Man City star over £400k-p/w Real Madrid player
Speaking in a recent video shared on the TNT Sport X account, Ferdinand had this to say when asked to pick between Rodri and Toni Kroos.
He said: “Kroos is top but the new man on the dancefloor, the best central defensive-midfielder in the world right now, I’ve got to go for Rodri.”
City signed the Spaniard from Atletico Madrid back in the 2019 summer transfer window in a deal worth £62m.
Since then, the midfielder has made 247 appearances for the Blues across all competitions prior to tonight’s European match in Madrid, scoring 25 goals and assisting 28 along the way.
Why Ferdinand is right about the Man City star
Even though the City star has played over 500 more minutes in the Premier League this season than Kroos has in La Liga, Rodri has racked up a higher passing accuracy percentage (91.7% vs 91.1%) than the German.
He also has a higher rate of shot-creating actions (5.09 vs 4.32) and goal-creating actions (0.79 vs 0.48) than the Real star, who is currently picking up a weekly wage of £400k-per-week, as well as having a higher percentage of dribblers tackled (52.9% vs 44.2%) than the 33-year-old.
This shows how much more effective the City star has been on and off the ball this season compared to Kroos.
With all of that in mind, it comes as no surprise to us that Ferdinand has spoken so highly of Rodri and even called him the best defensive-midfielder in the world right now.