Its not his fault he didnt have a great season. He's a DM who was played out of position as b2b CM to accommodate Allegri's wet dream of Pjanic becoming a world class regista (never happened).
He has all the tools to make a great DM; good passing range, very strong defensively, and does a great job breaking from deep. There's just a few facets of the game which are critical at regista which he needs to work on. These include breaking free from immense pressure, making himself available as an outlet for teammates under pressure, controlling the flow of the game and defensive positioning. Pirlo, Xavi, Marchisio etc absolutely excelled at these traits which is what made them absolutely world class registas (in the case of Pirlo/Xavi all time greats); however, Pjanic struggles with these facets of the game which is why he was never really up to par as a regista.
With that said there is still allot of time for Bentancur to grow and hone these skills. Marchisio did not posses these facets at a younger age; however, with more experience and playing along with Pirlo you could clearly see these skills improve which is what lead to him being such a fantastic regista. Had we not sold Marchisio he could of definitely played that role for Bentancur and aided his development quite a bit IMO.
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Great video, skip to 4:25 if you want to see Bentancury exhibit the time of long range vertical passing we've been missing with Pjanic at Regista....