If we could get 20+ mil for RicRod I'd sell him right away. Very likeable charachter, but unfortunately not a very good fullback (atleast for our setup): his of the ball movement is not up to par (lack of speed is also evident in relation to position on the pitch in transitions), his "dribling" always is some kind of semi-turn-and-pass-back move. In that regard, and I'm ashame to admit it, he reminds me of De Sciglio (without the dribble/turn).
That's not to say that isn't a very accomplished passer, has a very good shot/cross, but I still dream of a leftback that can actually dribble/knock ball past opponent in sprint (I think the last one we had who could do this was Constant, man we sure do suck). I know he was second choice to Kolasinac, but if we compare the two they are nothing alike: Kolasinac is a physical beast and not so good on the offensive end; RR is kind of like an opposite of him...
Which gets me to another 2nd choice of last summer, one that has a direct impact on RR: HC10. Left wingers/forwards we were tracking back then were all fast/physical/more of a scorer-type players (kind of what Niang should have been, if he developed) who attacks space more, so fullback can hang behind him and wait for deep-cross opportunities. Even Forsberg is fast-ish, although he's more of a playmaker. When we signed Hakan I was guessing he'll be our left mezzala, boy was I surprised... And when you have that kind of wide player (not so direct, likes to cut-in, more of a passer) you must have a very dinamic fullback to provide width and free space for him. What Gattuso is doing right now (atleast result-wise) is nothing short of a miracle because, from an offensive standpoint, we are quite unbalanced (for example, when we have a ball on our left side I already know that it's eventually gonna end up at Romagnoli's feet and then we'll switch side; we rarely go for a cross/killer pass from there). You can say what you will about Suso's predictabillity, but he's literally carrying us on his shoulders/left foot offensive-wise (his trademark in-swinging cross is possibly amongst the best I've seen in all my years of watching football and it takes only one to go through to Cutro/whoever to cause some serious damage).