He is. A good player by all accounts, but the narrative around him at the moment is ridiculous. He's just one of those tidy, grafting midfielders that fits really well into a Klopp midfield. Has a worldie strike in him every now and then, but I think a majority of his goals at Brighton were penalties.
He's probably better/more reliable than anything United have right now, but he'd be on the bench at City and Arsenal.
The thing it's there is also another narrative like the one you've posted: the mere tidy fella...yet actually at this time (and even before), it has been the other way around.
He has been excellent this season on pair and above anyone in "his roles" (at times he is playing three on the same game). On a very consistent way and somehow he was flying way too under the radar.
The whole Potter, Caicedo, De Zerbi, the system of the NT, Enzo, Messi, Endo, Klopp, EVERYONE is in some sort of task of making just a "tidy player" look better has just become a bit of a meme.
Not in the sense of not being true that all those factors helped him, like it happens with any other player, but rarely the other side of the coin it's taken in account: how great he is for his mates and teams.
He certainly isn't build as a tank, nor has great pace, that would always be held against him, yet this aspects lacking doesn't make him mere good, mere tidy or he doesn't have other assets that makes him a trully great player.
I do think that Pep specially would use him quite a lot. I see him playing more as a Gundo or replacing Rodri when need it.
Of course the two examples are kind of silly being Rodri the angular piece of Pep's team with years in there and Rice the new boy in town playing great with that sum over his head. Yet he can play both roles and he can be with both of them at the same time in the pitch easily.
In any case I don't get why in such an excellent season he is having, somehow we should diminsh his talent or contribution because he plays in a certain system or under certain coach like if any other player in his role/s mentioned aren't in similar ecosystems, nor needing similar things, it's a bit silly at this point.
He might crumble without Klopp next season? of course, no doubt, like any player can crumble with a coach that doesn't get him, or a team that plays badly as a whole, but so far everything he did in his carreer has been just getting better season after season, with multiple coaches, mates, systems, etc.
What I mean is that if anything the "narrative" since years and more now has been way more ridiculous on not giving him proper credit than the other way around.
PD: Bruno Guimaraes is another player under the radar. He is more of a unit, he really likes to dribble and create ocasions when going forward, while being a bulldog defending. Yet on the other side of the coin, he gets easily frustrated, sometimes he can become chaotic, loose a bit his temper and order, but he deserves a bigger club to mature and grow in there.
And egarding defenders, Van der Ven and Romero in Spurs also (even both at the same time as a pair) could be excellent in a more winner side than the Spurs.
