Manchester United legend Gary Neville has said he expects Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to do something out of the ordinary to cope with midfield maestro Rodri’s absence.
Rodri Could Be Out for Months With Ligament Injury
Manchester City dropped two points in the Premier League clash with Arsenal on September 22, with the two title contenders playing out a 2-2 draw. Not only did City drop two points against 10-man Arsenal, but they also lost one of their most important players just 20 minutes into the game.
In the 18th minute, Rodri went down under a challenge from Thomas Partey, and he had to come off the pitch just a couple of minutes later. Initially, it was feared that Rodri had suffered an Anterior Cruciate Ligament tear, but Manchester City has yet to confirm it. The club has only said that Rodri has suffered a ligament injury and has gone to Spain to meet with a specialist. Guardiola, meanwhile, has revealed he will not be able to call on the midfielder for a “long time.”
Gary Neville Expects an Unorthodox Solution from Manchester City Boss
Discussing how Guardiola could try to deal with Rodri’s absence, Neville said on the It’s Called Soccer podcast (via Manchester Evening News):
“I was thinking ‘what will Pep Guardiola have up his sleeve?’ You think of a man who put [Javier] Mascherano at centre half for Barcelona, a man who’s put players into different positions that we would never have expected as a manager.
“And I was thinking, ‘who is he going to put in there? How is he going to play to compensate for the loss of this probably talisman type figure?’ I think of only [Erling] Haaland probably that you could take out of the City team that would damage them as much as Rodri.”
He added:
“I know [Kevin] De Bruyne’s there, I’m not ignoring him, but if you were Arsenal and you could take one player out of the City team, because they’ve lost [Julian] Alvarez you’d take Haaland out probably number one, you’d probably take Rodri out number two.
“Does John Stones become Rodri for the next six months? He’ll be working on that already Pep Guardiola. He won’t just sit back and do nothing. I can’t see him just doing the ordinary.”
Manchester City Rodri has played 174 Premier League games for Manchester City. City has won 129, drawn 26, and lost 19, attaining a 74.1% win rate. The Cityzens have played 21 league games without Rodri, winning 13, drawing once, and losing seven times, attaining a significantly lower 61.9% win rate. City lost three Premier League games last season. Rodri was serving a suspension in all three.
