His impact on our team goes beyond what the stats will show. A player like him, will always be misunderstood in the prem as not many clubs have had such a player. That imo explains why so many prem clubs, despite the money they've had and prestige have continued to be a disappointment in the CL.
Its this obsession with the stats and what they represent that's held english teams back for so many years. A lack of understanding of the true functions of the individual members in a 3 man midfield.
Us ourselves haven't used him to his optimum level throughout the years but his contribution has been immense. We should've bought a DM, and played him and Arteta and that DM together to create a quality engine room but we didn't. Instead we stuck him wide, and although he contributed as much as he could given the conditions, there's no doubt in my mind that he should've been even better.
In order to make a case for him you need to understand players like iniesta and Seedorf. None of them like steven give you great stats but check at the mark both the aforementioned have left in the sport. They unlike steven, were used correctly throughout the years and are now privalaged to go down as legends, while steven stayed at our club for the majority of his time in europe.
He creates space for others. He puts his foot on the ball allowing the time to advance up the pitch and he finds men that can ultimately do the most damage. Ask what makes Iniesta one of the greatest players of this generation the answers would be the same. These are players that make teams function properly.
Can't remember the match, but last season we played without him in the team and we looked absolutely terrible. Couldn't string a pass or two together. When he came off the bench due to some injury iirc, we immediately looked like a decently functional team and could pose something that resembled a threat.
Sadly for us, he's almost done now and almost always injured. Finding someone that is as technically gifted as he is without making a substantial financial investment is going to be incredibly difficult although not impossible. We need someone, especially with he football we claim we want to play that can give us his qualities, if we don't then we're going to find it difficult to be a well functioning team.
