— If Man City are the champions that they are, Rodri’s absence shouldn’t affect them at all. People keep seeing graphics of games won without Rodri, games won with Rodri and it’s obviously very stark, but somebody has to step up to the plate and make sure that City retain another title. Pep Guardiola won’t be speaking about Rodri on the training ground and he won’t be speaking about him in the dressing room either, because once you start, in a team game, to suggest that one person is the sort of the icing on the cake or the magic elixir of life, then you get yourself a real problem.
Rodri isn’t irreplaceable. John Stones made a difference at the weekend and can play in midfield, whilst Matheus Nunes has, apparently, been the one told to step up. There’s this narrative that if Rodri plays City win or if Rodri doesn’t play, City lose.
That’s not strictly true, of course, because Man City still win a hefty amount of games without him. However, this is now a really good chance for Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Villa and all the other pretenders and wannabes to push City hard all the way through the season. There’s no doubt that Rodri’s injury is going to level the playing field somewhat, but I think that Pep will rightly will be shouting from the rooftops of the dressing room today; ‘we’re the champions, we’ve won four out of the last five titles, we don’t feel sorry for ourselves.
” I think that when a captain is called out of position and has a dis.