You’re comparing him to the world player of the year... he’s set apart from every midfielder. And for what it’s worth, no he isn’t as good as winning the ball back as Herrera. He’s very good at pressing but doesn’t do it as well. Which comes around succinctly to another point. People don’t actually value it as a skill. How many times already have we seen it reduced to ‘working hard’ or ‘running about’ in this thread? Like any skill in football, there are levels of ability and players like Ander and Kante are at the very top.
We didn’t sign him purely to be a creative outlet. He was signed for what he demonstrated at Bilbao, and that includes his intelligence, pressing and ability to win the ball back. Unless you actually want to provide even a shred of evidence to support this, stop pushing it as fact. Just because you keep banging on about it doesn’t make it true.
So you’ve hardly seen him play as defensive midfielder in a 3 but you’ve decided he cannot play there... Yes, when he’s played in a 2 man midfield he’s had far more defensive responsibility than he would do if he played in a 3 with a 2nd player devoted to winning the ball back. You get this yes? Now considering Herreras greatest assets are his ability to cut out passing avenues, intercept, read the game and tackle, not to mention his solid passing base. It’s not a stretch to say he’s going to be able to play there, when his defensive responsibilities are lessened than when he used to play there in a 2.