by Rodri got the game he asked for. “In fact, he will rest on Wednesday as well,” Pep Guardiola risked. Carlo Ancelotti may not have been fooled. Manchester City, after all, are unbeaten in the last 66 games in which Rodri has featured. They ended a four-match Premier League winless streak by beating Luton 5-1 on Saturday.
If nothing else, they have proved they can hammer Luton without the man Guardiola calls the best midfielder in the world: he was also an unused substitute for February’s 6-2 FA Cup triumph . Last season’s characteristic double action, in Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, inspired that. Saturday was different: victory with the imprint of the new. Three of the four main signings scored last summer – Mateo Kovacic, Jeremy Doku and Josko Gvardiol; the fourth, Matheus Nunes, was only denied a goal by the people standing. It was the first time the four started together; in a small sample size, it was a winning formula. A rampant one, it could be argued, since there were 19 shots between them.
So was £200m well spent? A different interpretation will feel possible when the team sheets arrive on Wednesday. Only Gvardiol will probably start. “He improves a lot,” said Guardiola, and he was not only referring to the right-footed, long-range shooting that has given the Croatian two goals in as many games. “Unbelievable talent,” said his manager. The world’s second most expensive centre-back is reinventing himself as a left-back and goal threat.
Then there is Doku – mercurial, great on his day, but his contributions come in fits and spurts. Guardiola prefers Jack Grealish’s ability to keep possession, and City’s defensive record could deteriorate when Doku starts. Nor, however, was it because Rodri was indispensable and irreplaceable. And if the over-reliance on Rodri is made worse by the lack of other options, because the player signed failed to become an understudy, in the then-exiled Kalvin Phillips, the fact is a story that City signed two midfielders last summer. They may look to sign two more this summer.
Nunes and Kovacic are different problems. The Croat was impressive on Saturday but it was rare, a game in which he excelled without Rodri. His best displays tended to come alongside the Spaniard. Arguably his worst Arsenal spell, when Rodri was banned. He was slightly better in the win at Wolves, also with his usual sidekick suspended. He received a pep talk ahead of Luton. “We spoke and said, ‘You can do it’,” said his manager. But in a game where City had 74 percent of the possession and 37 shots, he didn’t need to be a defensive midfielder.
Kovacic struggled against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. In one way, he’s the anti-Doku – he’ll probably keep the ball, often picked for the big games. And yet there is one theory that a man who has won four Champions Leagues without starting any of the finals is better as a squad player; that the mistake was not buying him, but relying on him to replace Ilkay Gundogan. However, there are two problems with Saturday’s fine strike: he is neither a goal-scoring threat nor a player who can anchor the midfield on his own.
However, buying Nunes may have been a mistake. Guardiola described one of the best players in the world as “one of the best players in the world” when he was at Sporting Lisbon – a judgment the Catalan has since retracted – Nunes may be one of the City’s worst signings in recent years. They have won 14 of the 15 games he has started, but that is an indication of the weakness of opponents.
The city is likely stuck with Nunes. If an attacking midfielder arrives in the summer – perhaps Lucas Paqueta, ahead of him on last year’s shopping list, or Jamal Musiala – it will have more to do with the possible departure of Bernardo Silva, as he tries finding the Mediterranean climate every year, or De Bruyne, if Saudi Arabia is calling. Either way, they would need a quality addition, a potential match-winner that Nunes is not, with one goal in 66 games for Wolves and City.
But whether or not anyone leaves, a more defensive presence capable of working alongside or, occasionally, in place of Rodri is a key requirement to ensure he doesn’t rack up 3,497 minutes by April soon again next season. Bruno Guimaraes may be spectacular and expensive, but the £62.8m fee Rodri paid for him to become a club record signing shows the importance of a central position for Guardiola.
Last year, City’s midfield overhaul cost £75m and bought players who should be back-up, good enough to start against Luton, likely to be on the bench against Real Madrid. And while fatigue may have been the reason Rodri was unusually poor at the Bernabeu, he will be back, probably too important to get another break this season.
