Me too. He made a mistake last night but of all the minutes he's played he's pocketed nearly every attacker we've played against all season. He has that jovial enforcer energy that Pepe and Casemiro had. He'll smile and genuinely joke with you but if you cross one of the boys he'll kick their teeth down their throat. Rarely gets carded too. I said it before I wish we would have gotten him a few years earlier.
Yes, I just wanted to see what you guys thought about his season, and where it ranks compared to the other great cb's we've had.
It'll be interesting to see how things pan out when Alaba returns because there's no way he'll be an undisputed starter with Rudiger playing like this.
Wouldn't say we haven't seen it before. But he deserves credit, up there with the best players of the season, I'd give personally have Valverde as or best player of the season.
Alaba will be useful to have being able to slot into three positions. There are a few guys out there putting in a lot of minutes this year like Fede and Rudi. Hopefully Alaba knows his place.
The same for me, player of the season. He never complained about lack of playing time, or being benched vs. City in the second leg last year after he deserved to start. He always puts the team and his fellow players first, in everything he says and does. All of these elements add to his positive character for me.
Different days, he had to wait his turn coming into a club with already established CB’s who had already won titles for this club, nothing unusual there, Now, Rudiger first…….then either Eder or Alaba, I expect Eder, it remains to be seen who recovers better from injury, if both do well I expect Eder to get that spot next to Rudi anyway.
The beauty of it is that right now Militao and Alaba have to battle it out + maybe Yoro. Anyone in the two CB spots is going to have to be in top form at all times. Amazing depth at that position.
Alaba also only has one more season on his contract. If there was ever time for a young gem CB to pop up it’s pretty much now.
According to Carlo Rudiger had only hit 3 penalties before the game. Crazy balls from Rudiger to want to hit a penalty with absolutely no experience hitting them before and only hitting 3 of them in training
I was expecting Fede to come up and smash it in with gk and all. Was surprised at Rudiger but fair play. Prolly the best penalty of the bunch and nerves of steel is what you really need to take a pen at that stage.
These guys are pros at the highest level. Everyone can hit penalties. At that point, its 80% mental 20% skill.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, his leadership style and camaraderie is very unique in our current squad. It's hard to put into words and it isn't just a theoretical tangible or statistic, Bellingham has some elements of what he has too.
Perfect penalty. In off the post with keeper guessing the right way and diving at full stretch. Rudiger also snitched on Kovacic and told Lunin where Kova would place his penalty, so he gets some credit for that too:
It’s impossible not to love Rüdiger. 😂🤍 pic.twitter.com/NA3lZUTvTI— TC (@totalcristiano) April 26, 2024
Antonio Rüdiger is set to win his first ever career league title. 👀🏆 pic.twitter.com/VMx8rZiUF2— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) May 3, 2024
Where was he supposed to win it? Stuttgart or Roma? He joined Chelsea after they won it and the start of Pep's run.
Was definitely not a fan of the club recruiting him, I’ve already eaten my humble pie and will gladly eat it again, absolutely what this team needed, monster season so far with more to come I think, excellent choice from the club, clear case when it comes to me of showing armchair fans are just that, fantastic job Toni