I’d say he does play the occasional decent ball forward. He can pick out a pass that many other players can make.He does play the occasional brilliant ball forward..then his system returns to normal mode and continues its side and back pass routine
IMO, An actual brilliant ball is the types of passes that players like Eriksen and KDB (and sometimes Kane) make. Passes that we don’t even see are available from a spectators birds eye view. He doesn’t really have brilliance in his locker… just occasional competence. And he doesn’t have consistency either. A progressive passer like Bentancur is much more consistent