Did Rodri just put even more pressure on Man City’s efforts to replace him?
If anyone was still in any doubt about just how important Rodri is to Manchester City, they need only take a look at their season so far without him.
The Cityzens are on an unprecedented run — both for the club in the modern era and for Pep Guardiola himself — of four consecutive defeats across all competitions, losing 2-1 away at Bournemouth and Brighton in the Premier League, exiting the EFL Cup to Tottenham and, most crushingly, going down 4-1 against Sporting CP in the Champions League.
Of course, Rodri has been sidelined for longer than just those four games and of the 12 Premier League and Champions League games he’s missed in total this season, City have won eight of them and drawn another. In fact, they only won one of the three he played in — although two of those were draws against strong Arsenal and Inter sides.
Nevertheless, the nature of the goals and chances they’ve been conceding has shined a light on the important role Rodri plays within Guardiola’s midfield, while the raw stats speak for themselves.
Since the start of last season (all competitions), Man City have played 53 games with Rodri, losing just once, while without him, they’ve lost eight of 24, with their win rate dropping from 74% to 58%. City’s goals scored and goals conceded of 2.5 and 0.9 with Rodri flip to 2.3 and 1.2 without him. With the utmost respect to Mateo Kovacic, the Croatian just doesn’t have the same destructive instincts as Rodri, who is the world’s best when it comes to stopping opposition transitions and momentum.
With Rodri not expected to play again this season, many have been left wondering if Guardiola will dip into the market in January in a bid to sign a viable replacement for his linchpin, or risk their first season without a major trophy since 2016/17; Guardiola’s first campaign in charge.
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Man City on alert after Rodri’s Real Madrid comments
Man City’s worries regarding replacing Rodri may go well beyond this season.
European champions Real Madrid have been linked with the Euro 2024 winner for some time now, with reports suggesting Florentino Perez has set his sights on bringing Rodri to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2025.
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Given Man City’s spending power, they stand the best chance of anybody of keeping a player out of the clutches of Los Blancos, even a Spaniard hailing from the city of Madrid. But the club and supporters alike will be on high alert after Rodri appeared to give Real Madrid the eye with his latest comments.
“If Real Madrid call me? Obviously, when Real Madrid, the best and most successful club in history calls you, it’s an honour. You always have to pay attention,” he said in an interview with El Larguero.
From Martin Zubimendi to Frenkie de Jong, Man City have been linked with a host of top midfielders to replace Rodri. It may well be that City now have to take extra care when making their next midfield move as it may be a long-term replacement.
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