Cant recall too often he takes a man on and beats him. He's not particularly a good tackler.
He has a good passing % but its primarily short, he hardly ever takes a risk.
I figured this was the issue with people that don't rate him, and I don't want to be rude but it seems for some people the last 50 odd years of development in modern football has just completely passed them by.
Tackling is a act of desperation, it means you have already done something wrong, you were out of position, you didn't use your brain, so you have to go to ground and take yourself out of the game in a attempt to make up for your failings, perhaps it looks exciting when it works but think of all the times it goes wrong, and the consequences. The same goes for beating a man, if you are in the right position and you are aware of where your team mates are then why attempt to beat a man when you know that if you use your brain you can bypass that person completely and take them out of the game. Taking on a man and beating him looks exciting when it goes right but more often than not it doesn't, and then you have taken yourself out of the game again, meaning you have to make a desperate attempt to recover, and tackle, and risk a card for being late or you cause trouble for your team mates.
There is a reason the rest of the world moved on from those ideas decades ago, and the Dutch were at the forefront of that revolution. Gini will have been drilled from a very young age to use his head, and to keep his head up, to know where his team mates are and to position himself accordingly. He will also have been drilled over and over to understand that it is a team game, and not simply a game for individual heroics.
I can remember one tackle Gini made, and one or two risky long ball passes in all the Liverpool games I have seen him play. The tackle was when there was no other choice and nobody to cover in a important game where not tackling would have led to a disastrous situation for the defence, the one risky long ball I remember in particular was in a important game near the end when we needed a goal to prevent disaster, the pass was perfect and resulted in a assist by the person he passed to. It is not that he can't take risks or showboat, it is just that he has been drilled since he was a child to know that one should do that only when there are no other options, when not taking a risk is riskier than taking the risk.
Gini is a incredibly intelligent footballer who fulfils his role with dedication, and I think that the people that can't see what he brings to the team need to ask themselves if they are being realistic about what they seem to want from a central midfielder, and if they want a solid central midfield behind the fluid attacking genius we have. Maybe it is just me but I think it is self evident that if one wants a flowing creative attack in a team that plays exciting football due to defending by attacking then you have to have a player (or three) like Gini doing the "dirty" but unspectacular hard work.
The way I see it the more some people think Gini had a "invisible" game the better we have played as a team, if he seems invisible to you I will probably think that he did his job perfectly.
