now hear me out ...
this is going to sound a bit silly, but watch the video and maybe it could change your view.
In the video it focusses on a part of his game that never really stuck in my head from watching him play - he really seems to be able to pick pockets and break up play. Maybe we have him in the wrong position. If he could get the rolling around on the floor out of his game, he could be the quality DM we've been looking for since Caicedo left.
(obvious caveats about youtube videos not being the full picture of the player)
Yeah its something I hadn't noticed until the last few weeks. Funnily enough the video more emphasises to me that his floated cross pitch passes definitely need work because although they find their man, they take the momentum out of the play each time, they are to 'on' the man as oppose to in front of the man.
TBF he could definitely now play in RDZs 2 man CM pairing, his defensive capabilities have improved so much recently that he's now just as good if not better than Gilmour and Gross at winning back the ball, but he doesn't have the outrageous passing ability or decision making of them. Regardless, his best position has always been the number 10/CAM role. He has that attacking output that is hard to come across. Lots of work and improvement needed but he's so young still and improved so much since given more game time. Very notable improvements other than the aforementioned are his energy/determination, his strength and balance under pressure with the ball and his eye for goal. No doubt as well that he carrying out RDZs tactical instructions very well too - something that I suspect poor Baleba is struggling to do.