“Possessions so long are ineffective now”

Robert Morales |

Las Rozas (Madrid) (EFE).- At 26, Rodri Hernández (Madrid, June 22, 1996) is already captain of a club as powerful as Manchester City and becomes the captain of the national team due to the generational change that he promotes Louis of the Source. He is accompanied by a retouching of the Spanish style that the midfielder sums up in one word: verticality. “Long possessions are ineffective” in today’s football.

Rodri was always a different footballer, a ‘rare bird’ in the locker room without social networks in times when each footballer generates a brand image. Isolated from criticism and at the same time from praise. With an innate ability to command on the pitch and a leadership that has given him the role of midfielder. He embodies the evolution that the times demand. Adding more travel and physical deployment.

At 26, Rodri became one of the captains of the Spanish team. He is going through times of changes in the Red and after Álvaro Morata he is the one with the most caps. Proud, he feels prepared to exercise leadership. The one he learned from Bruno Soriano and Sergio Ramos, whom he marks as references in an interview with EFE. It is time for the heir to a legendary medium like Sergio Busquets and he wants to make his own way.

Q: Revolution with the arrival of Luis de la Fuente and captaincy. How do you receive the bracelet?

A: It is a tremendous pride, something that one does not expect with the age that I am but it has come. We are in a generational change, a very young generation is coming to the national team and although I consider myself young, I have been there for a while. Beyond the bracelet I have to be an example on and off the pitch. Advise new people and give a bit of my experience from my years here, the demands and how difficult it is to come. It must be instilled in this new batch with a coach we know well from the lower categories. I will try to set an example and take the leadership role.

Q: What is for Rodri the leadership that at 26 years old he already exercises in Manchester City with Pep Guardiola and now in the team’s dressing room?

A: It is something that you learn over time, it has to be born by you, it is true that due to my position I have always had the mentality of being a leader in the field because it is the only position in which you see all the parts and you have to knowing how to position people From there, as the years go by, you earn respect from the rest of your colleagues, a status, which also has to be something that comes from you. Not everyone can be a leader and you have to know how to carry it. Not everyone is the same.

You have to treat some one way and others another to get the best performance out of all your teammates because in the end it’s the team that wins. It is what I have cultivated all these years knowing that the captaincy of the national team or in my club can come to me, which I am also. I learned in the past and now I reflect it on younger people who can learn.

Q: Who marked you?

A: I have had many very good captains, I fondly remember Bruno Soriano at Villarreal and Sergio Ramos was a great captain for the national team. They both marked me, Ramos was longer. In my club Fernandinho that already left. I have tried to absorb a bit of each one, despite the fact that they have a different personality, some more intense and others more restrained, but absorb from experience and role on the field because there will be moments of trouble, of having a bad time, of weakness and then It is when these types of players come out.

Q: You inherit Busquets’ bracelet but also the position of a footballer who has marked the history of the national team. How do you assume, can you be up to the most successful midfielder in the history of the national team?

A: I try to take my path and aspire to be the best I can be. Obviously if they compare you with this type of exceptional player, because he has been the best pivot in our history, a player that what I emphasize the most is the high demand for so many years. It is what I aspire to but without putting a brake or barriers, if I want to look like myself, leading my way giving the best of me and now there is a situation in which it no longer comes. A new stage is opening for me that I want to take advantage of giving maximum performance.

Q: While waiting to see the system that Luis de la Fuente is committed to, do you prefer a double pivot or a single pivot?

A: I think he is a coach who is very clear about what he is playing for, we have known him for a long time, the idea is there and sometimes he will reverse the triangle, especially to have a player who supports you more in the defensive phase and then reverse it again in attack. There are many options that we are working on. The idea is not to be alone defensively, to be a little more protected, and with the ball having people in front of you as the only pivot, trying to be more vertical, incisive and trying to hurt your opponent with not so many touches, being a little more vertical.

Q: In your presentation as coach, you talked about retouching your style, after seeing you in the central position at the World Cup, what needs to be changed to fight for the titles again?

A: There is nothing in particular, to adapt to what modern football demands today. It is true that those long possessions, with so many touches, are ineffective now. It does not mean that we lose our essence because we have a very specific characteristic of players, but the areas are more important today. Be more efficient and lethal both defensively and offensively. We are working on that, on being more vertical. The matches will give it and above all, as the coach said, create a team.

Q: Who is going to be the new leader? Luis Enrique said that he assumed that role… A: Leadership is somewhat linked to each one and it is very personal. It is clear that there are players who have it innately and bring it out on the pitch. The person we follow is the coach but on the field there will be some players who will step forward. In good times it’s easy, but in difficult times to encourage and have people follow you, some of us will have to take a step forward.

Q: Was it a relief when you found out about Haaland’s loss in Malaga?

A: No (laughs), in the end one never wants to, besides being a partner. I spoke to him the other day and I don’t think he has much to do. Obviously for Norway he is a very important factor, a striker who today has 42 goals. I know him well. He is a significant handicap but we already faced them, they are a competitive team and they have good names apart from Erling.

Q: On the step from which Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are forced to fall due to age, there is already a player like Haaland together with Mbappé.

A: There are players who when you see them have an innate ability and he has it for the goal, it is inevitable. I honestly believe that he still has many things to improve, he can contribute much more to us despite the fact that he has only been with us for a year and has scored all those goals. The coach demands a lot from him, we also from that position because we have a specific way of playing. He wants to improve and grow. He has a rhythm that if he maintains it he will be there in numbers at the level of Messi and Cristiano, which is saying.

Q: In what do you see room for improvement, in your participation in the game?

A: His area of ​​improvement is getting more involved in the game. There have been many statistics that he touches eight or nine balls and scores three goals, obviously it is a positive thing because of the efficiency he has but perhaps not so much because of the participation. If he participated more, he would score more goals, he could help us more in the elaboration and that is what we are working on, finding that facet that is not the area so that it is also important for the team.

Q: What challenges does Rodri have entering the key phase of the season?

A: We are open to everything, making a very full year, now comes the moment of truth. I explained it to the team, to the new people who arrive. Few reach this far but those who make the difference are those who are capable of giving their best version from now on. We are all tired, it has been a World Cup year but it is time to take a step forward when the titles are decided. We are looking for a dream treble that is complicated because Arsenal is unstoppable, difficult knockouts await us in the Champions League and in the national team we already played the Nations League last year and let’s see if we can lift it this year.

Q: On the road to the Champions League, Real Madrid may appear again with the memory of what happened at the Santiago Bernabéu.

A: It is already a bit forgotten and obviously learning from past experiences always adds up. First we have a very difficult tie against Bayern with the return leg at their home but we are going about our business. We have little competition time left and every match is a final. We don’t think much further than the match against Bayern.