Don't get me wrong - at the moment, he's certainly at his best in a deeper position, but I still think he has all the tools in his locker to be an absolute beast of an attacking midfielder in the right system. I can't look past the combination of physicality and technical proficiency he offers - it's such a rare combination, and if only we could develop him into a more productive attacker, he could be an incredibly effective tool. The player he reminds me most of is Yaya Toure, and Toure had scored just six goals for Barca over three years before he moved to City.
I don't want anyone to think I'm saying a defensive role isn't his best right now - it clearly is - but I would like to see him tried further up at some point, at least a couple of times to test him out.
I remember someone once upon a time saying that Ryan Babel had certain resemblances in playing style to Zidane at one point in his first season with us, and I didn't think it was entirely crazy.
Then he departed on the Babelcopter and the rest is history.
That's without disrespect to your comment or Can - I see the resemblances there as well (I'm pretty sure I've made the same comment, in fact), but I think Yaya had a bit more in his locker than Emre at the moment. He's a far better passer and shooter, which really make a great deal of difference. Yaya was also a pretty great striker of a dead ball, while Emre's not even considered for set pieces.
I think Emre also considers himself to be a DM - the type of DM that wins duels with physicality, and then drives forward with the ball towards the final third, before passing it on or shooting. He's more or less got this aspect of his game locked down. All he needs to improve on to become excellent at this skillset, is to be a little bit more agile on the ball, to make it easier to beat the press, a little better at positioning to stop the counter-attacks, and also be a little more dominant in the air. After that, all the range shooting and long range diagonal passes become bonuses he can add to his repertoire as his career progresses.