Rodri is superb at snuffing out danger but he could do with more goals. I was one in seven. He’s one in nine!

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 on to 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.