He's not a DMat all, he's a box to box player who appears to know how to track back and defend.
Lucas was playing the DM position yesterday, Can was the number 8 alongside Gini.
He's a 6, I'm pretty sure he's said it himself and his best games against Villarreal and City - where he looked genuinely elite - came playing at the base. He said this time last year that he felt at home in that role.
He
can play as an 8 in the same way Javi Martinez or a Khedira can play as an 8, but they're better as a 6 or in Javi's case (since his injuries) a CB.
The idea should be for us to have a midfield of 6 first team players, no squad players by their purest definition. So long as we get back into the champions league there will be plenty of games for Henderson and Emre Can as the defensive midfielder next season, and don't forget Emre is a few years younger so he'll get his chance to cement his place at some point.
Obviously the ball is in his court at this point, and I really hope he stays because he's an outstanding talent but there will have to be a compromise at some point. I think he's at a point where he could probably go back to say Bayern and start as their 6, and we shouldn't be letting that kind of player go because it'll take miracle to find that calibre of player for the fee we'd likely get for him.