Verratti would still be a good player in front of the defense. Some of you people are way too polarized on literally everything. He has excellent passing range across the entire field, and isn't bad at defending to the point where if he was paired with other adequate defending midfielders he would be a liability.
In fact, verratti is actually very solid defensively for a midfielder of his style. Not in the elegant style of blocking passing lanes and interceptions, more of a hard running aggressive style. He also is very good at moving the ball with his feet, which would make it a huge waste to play him as the deepest midfielder. His natural role is as a 6, probably in the spot Xavi played in a 3 man. But in no way would verratti be a horrible player in front of the defense. Players are humans and they adapt if they have the skill set. Most of you would have said marchisio could never play anchor because of his natural style, but he filled in there excellently for juve. I would even say verratti is a good enough player to be better than most actual cdms, even if you wouldn't prefer him there