On 2 March 2019, Rakitić scored the only goal of the match against Real Madrid; after which José Mourinho identified him as "one of the most underrated players in the world".
Rakitić's playing time was severely reduced during the 2019–20 season and his role in the team decreased following the arrival of Frenkie de Jong. In October 2019 the player stated: "I want to play, and not just enjoy walking around Barcelona and the sea. I talked to the people in the club, everyone knew about the other options I had, it was no secret."
A talented, intelligent, and hard-working midfielder, Rakitić is known in the media as a well-rounded playmaker, with good stamina and defensive skills, as well as excellent technique, close control, vision, passing, and an ability to read the game, which enables him to dictate play in midfield and create chances for teammates after winning back possession, despite his lack of pace. As such, he is capable of both breaking down opposing plays and subsequently transitioning the ball forward to start attacks; he is also capable of scoring goals himself, courtesy of his striking ability from distance, as well as his ability to find and exploit spaces with his movement off the ball and make attacking runs into the box. A versatile player, he is capable of playing in several midfield positions, and has been deployed as a winger on either side of the pitch, as a central midfielder, as an attacking midfielder, as a defensive midfielder, in a box-to-box role, or even as a deep-lying playmaker. In 2019, in an interview with BeIN Sports, manager José Mourinho described Rakitić as "one of the most underrated players in the world." He later added: "He is fantastic on all levels; he defends, he compensates for [Lionel] Messi, he runs and he's sensible with the ball at his feet."
