Plenty are happy to put the classy 29-year-old in that category, as a lot of his best work can go unnoticed. He is notall-action, like Arsenal star Rice, or probing in possession such as Paris Saint-Germain and Portugal playmaker Vitinha.
He does, however, do a job for the collective cause and has said of those that continue to write him off - especially in his homeland: “I have the feeling that many people don’t understand anything about football. They watch it, but they don’t understand it, so to speak. That’s not a bad thing, because it allows everyone to talk about it, but it’s the truth.
“I hear people say that I don’t give through passes, but that’s not true. They’re just not paying attention to the game. It depends on the game, but also on the moment. You can play the through pass, but in some situations it will always end up at the goalkeeper. Yes, I think some people find it hard to understand it. Maybe I should sit with them sometime. It also depends on the moment itself. If someone runs or not, how is he running.
“I think that, in general, in the Netherlands we could value the players a little more. Of course, you can criticise if you think someone is not playing a good game. That’s okay and we don’t have any problem with it either. But it’s often so exaggerated by the people here.”