West Ham United midfielder Tomas Soucek has highlighted one Manchester City player as being particularly important for the Blues.
Since arriving at the East London club back in the 2020 January transfer window, the 29-year-old has appeared in 207 games across all competitions.
On the international stage, Soucek has racked up 70 caps for the Czech Republic, the latest of which being their 2-1 defeat to Portugal in their opening game of the 2024 European Championship.
This shows just how familiar the midfielder is in terms of playing with and against a wide range of high-quality players.
In fact, the West Ham star has shared his thoughts on some of the best players he’s come up against in his career, with one City figure getting a special mention.
Tomas Soucek says Rodri is so important for Man City
In a recent video shared on the West Ham United YouTube channel, Soucek was tasked with creating an ultimate world XI of the best players he’s either played with or against throughout his career for club and country.
After picking Rodri as one of his midfield options, the Hammers star had this to say about the City man.
He said: “He’s class, he showed it season by season. He is so important for City.
“We could see that without him they start to lose in games and when he came back again they are on the winning side.”
City paid £62m to sign the Spaniard, who Patrick Vieira said he’s a really big fan of last month, from Atletico Madrid during the 2019 summer transfer window.
Since then, the 27-year-old has appeared in 257 games for Pep Guardiola’s side across all competitions, scoring 26 goals, delivering 30 assists and winning many trophies along the way.
Rodri proved his worth once again in a City shirt
As Soucek mentioned, the three Premier League games that City lost last season were the three matches that Rodri missed through suspension.
Across the 34 league games he did play in, the midfield racked up more shot-creating actions (157), goal-creating actions (23) and a higher combined total of tackles and interceptions (96) than any other player in the City squad.
Taking all of that into account, it’s hard to disagree with Soucek about how important Rodri is for City and it comes as no surprise to us that the Czech midfielder thinks so highly of him.