Reports that Manchester City midfielder Rodri is to be sidelined for the rest of the season present a significant problem for the defending Premier League champions.
City are yet to confirm whether the injury the Spain international sustained early in Sunday's 2-2 draw against Arsenal will see him miss a significant portion, or even all of, the 2024/25 campaign. But the signs do not look good.
He is due to undergo further tests but it is reported that early indications show Rodri's season could be over after only five league games.
Coming against the backdrop of the ongoing hearings into alleged financial breaches brought by the Premier League – charges City strongly deny – losing Rodri for any significant length of time poses a huge problem to the club's ambitions.
His influence on the pitch cannot be overstated. Save for striker Erling Haaland, Rodri is the one player in Pep Guardiola's squad the Spaniard will find it hard to replace. Maybe even impossible.
A midfield metronome, much in the mould of his manager during his playing days with Barcelona and the Spanish national team, Rodri is the vital cog that makes the Manchester City engine room purr.
Statistics don't tell the whole story, except in Rodri's case, they mostly do. All three of City’s Premier League defeats during their historic fourth consecutive title-winning 2023/24 campaign came without him in the team.
In all, City lost four out of the five games he missed last season, with Rodri tasting defeat just once in all competitions excluding penalty shoot-outs – the 2-1 FA Cup final defeat to Manchester United in May.
Rodri's influence
Rodri joined City in 2019 from Atletico Madrid for a fee of £62.6 million and has gone on to make 260 appearances in all competitions, helping the club win an unprecedented four English league titles in a row as well as a first Champions League trophy in 2023. Added to that is one FA Cup, two League Cups, the Uefa Super Cup and the Fifa Club World Cup.
He was part of the Spain side that won Euro 2024 in Germany, defeating England 2-1 in the final, though he came off injured at half time.
It seems a cruel twist of irony that Rodri should suffer such a bad injury only a week after saying players could strike over fixture congestion, pointing out that it will lead to more injuries.
During his five years at the Etihad Stadium, City have lost only 11 per cent of games in which Rodri has played, winning 73 per cent of them. Of the 45 games he has missed, City have lost 24 per cent of their matches, winning only 64 per cent.
According to Opta, City average 2.36 points per game with Rodri in the team. That number drops to 2.04 without him.
City sit top of the Premier League with 13 points from five games. He missed the first three games of the season – against Chelsea, Ipswich Town and West Ham United – with City winning all by an aggregate of nine goals to two. He played 45 minutes of the 2-1 victory over Brentford before playing the full 90 in the 0-0 Champions League draw against Inter Milan last week.
Rodri went down under minimal contact from Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey, with replays showing there was no fault on the Ghanaian's part, during Sunday's match. John Stones' injury-time equaliser sent City back to the summit, but it looks as though those celebrations have been severely dampened by the news Rodri faces a lengthy lay-off.
Why Rodri is so important to City
For a manager that prizes possession over all else, Rodri is integral to Guardiola's set-up.
The Spaniard has an almost magnetic pull when it comes to winning the ball back. Since joining City in August 2019, only Declan Rice has won the ball back more times than Rodri (1,356 possessions won to 1,348).
Rodri is both destroyer and architect. Defensively, Rodri has an ingrained sense for sniffing out danger, anticipating overloads in midfield or on the flanks. Superb spatial awareness allows him time to judge when to engage and when to stand off and allow play to develop.
City's array of attacking talent means Rodri's primary job is to feed those more creative players ahead of him. He seldom gives the ball away. Since arriving in the Premier League, Rodri has successfully completed nearly 2,000 more passes than any other player – the City midfielder has made 13,699 in total, with Brighton defender Lewis Dunk next on the list with 11,952.
He also tops the list for passes in the opposition half with 7,985 since August 2019. By comparison, Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is next on the list, has completed 5,176.
While few would peg Rodri as a contributing factor in City's ridiculously impressive goals record, a return of 26 in 260 games for a screening midfielder can be considered healthy. He also scored the only goal in City's win over Inter Milan in the 2023 Champions League final that clinched an elusive first European Cup for the club.
What can City do to replace him?
Though Guardiola has described Rodri as irreplaceable, the Spaniard has several options and systems at his disposal to help minimise the effect of losing such an important player.
With Kalvin Phillips, the most obvious choice to anchor the midfield, not even an option until at least January when City are able, if they choose to, recall the England international from his loan at Ipswich Town, Guardiola may consider switching to two holding midfielders.
Re-signing Ilkay Gundogan from Barcelona on a free transfer now looks visionary. The German's versatility has seen him play a number of roles under Guardiola, and he has the tactical discipline to shine where ever he is deployed.
Mateo Kovacic, the tough-tackling Croatian who replaced Rodri against Arsenal midway through the first half, is likely to occupy one of those two places on a regular basis, too.
The flexibility of John Stones could also be a huge asset. The England international has been utilised in the holding role previously, shoring up the low block in midfield from a central or full-back position, to great effect.
The pugnacious Bernardo Silva could be used on a rotation basis while 19-year-old Rico Lewis, a player Guardiola said can fill a number of positions, may also get a chance to stake a claim for a regular berth with Kyle Walker returning at right-back.
