City badly miss their ‘brain’ Rodri
THERE was a conference in the middle of Manchester yesterday, organised for highprofile experts from across the game to discuss new trends and practices.
One of the talks centred on how to build a squad at the elite level. A fair amount of the chat involved data, and how that should inform not control, before one recruiter began charting the importance of character modelling over just landing the best footballer available.
‘We want due diligence,’ they said. ‘You’re not just signing a player, but a person. And that’s how they might adapt to a new city, you have to understand them. We need references, we really need to study them.’
It turned out that club found one target was undertaking a degree in his country and it helped tip the scales in his favour. That story — offered up to a room of around 200 people yards from Rodri’s apartment — brought to mind Manchester City’s fulcrum.
The university aspect in particular. Rodri passed a business administration course at Universidad de Castellon in eastern Spain, one he started while at Villarreal. City found out when scouting the Atletico Madrid midfielder, leaving Pep Guardiola impressed. Above all else, it proved his ability to absorb information.
And if there is one thing that City players require, it is that. A quick learner triumphs with Guardiola, which is a major positive teenager Rico Lewis has going for him.
Over the past fortnight, City have missed their brain. Guardiola rightly didn’t bother sugarcoating Rodri’s absence at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, pointing to the raw statistics — three domestic defeats from three without him — of the Spaniard’s standing within this team.
He regularly calls him the best in the world at what he does and given that, was probably angrier than normal at Rodri’s silly red card against Nottingham Forest.
Arsenal didn’t cut through them in the way Wolves managed last week, and City actually defended relatively well in north London, but Guardiola saw a midfield that wasn’t quite as proficient at playing their way through a press.
Rodri has learned that over time and become the most destructive in his position going both ways, on the ball and off it. Finding a replica is almost impossible at this point and the travails of Kalvin Phillips offer all the evidence you could ever want for that. Good player, Phillips. Not Rodri though.
Part of Mateo Kovacic’s appeal when they gave Chelsea £25million in the summer was his flexibility, that capability of moving back as a No 6 which would help ease a load that Rodri struggled with last season. But Molineux showed what a huge void he leaves.
After Kovacic’s problems with Wolves, Bernardo Silva dropped in for Arsenal. He has that same understanding as Rodri, without the physicality that sets the first-choice apart from the rest. ‘I’m not going to lie and say that Rodri and Kevin (De Bruyne) aren’t important players, of course they are,’ Silva said.
‘But over the last few years they have been two of our most important players. It’s also true that over the last seven years, this team has always been able to react to injuries to important players.’
That is correct, they have almost always reacted. Without this energy to bounce back, City wouldn’t be in a position to be going for an unprecedented fourth straight title. The feeling is they can do so again. With Rodri that task becomes a whole lot easier.