How did Manchester City cope without 'irreplaceable' Rodri?

“When we lose again, it will not be specifically because of Rodri,” Pep Guardiola said on Friday, predicting the sort of conclusions that would be drawn whenever Manchester City dropped points.

But more than a message for fans and pundits, the City manager had a message for his players.

“Everyone has to make a step forward,” he said. “When you don’t have a player like this you have to make a step forward, it is what it is.”

Newcastle United away was always going to be a battle and if City fell short in any areas during the 1-1 draw, it was not in the physical side of the game that would, in theory, be toughest to replicate without Rodri.

“With the long balls Rodri would win, now we are going to lose them. Lose, 10 out of 10,” Guardiola reflected before the match. “With Joelinton we are going to lose, but that’s not a problem, (we have to) be ready for the second ball, be close to Joelinton and we will recover the ball four, five, six seconds later. We have to adapt with the players that we have.”

Guardiola has already admitted that, despite his confidence he and City’s players can find the right answer, replacing Rodri might take a while. “The other players might give us something Rodri does not have,” he said on Friday. “Maybe if one cannot do it we can put two players and maybe that will help us to do the process.

“When is that going to happen? When I see by game, by game, by game what happens. Maybe it will be late.”

4 – Each of Manchester City’s last four Premier League defeats have all come when Rodri has not featured in the side. The Spaniard is unbeaten in his last 52 Premier League appearances (W42 D10), a run stretching back to February 2023. Irreplaceable. pic.twitter.com/1VDu7Dxbuv

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 27, 2024

He had already noted that City had played the first three league games of this season without Rodri in the starting XI and won them all, so they are not starting from a low base. It is not as if Guardiola does not know how to approach difficult away games on a broader level.

So Guardiola, as is often the case for these tough away games, and in the first half of last season when Rodri missed three league matches through suspensions, opted for a team full of players most capable of keeping the ball, the idea being to keep the game tight, stop transitions and keep the home crowd quiet. The bonus is that those players know how to battle, too. Care on the ball and grit off it would be needed.

The problem on Saturday, beyond the fact City conceded from a softly awarded penalty, was their usual strength in possession was the cause of some issues.

This was yet another match about trying to establish control, Guardiola’s go-to approach that would have only been heightened by the lack of Rodri. The players asked to make that ‘step forward’ may not have had their most precise afternoon in possession — Ilkay Gundogan notably struggled — but their fighting qualities would have lived up to what Guardiola demanded.

At set pieces and when the ball dropped in midfield, somebody was there to get in a foot — or a head. Gundogan at least mopped up some loose balls. Bernardo Silva did a lot more in that department and Mateo Kovacic got stuck in.

Erling Haaland did the near-post set-piece job that often fell to Rodri, and Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji were almost always on hand to snuff out any danger. Kyle Walker played Gordon onside for the penalty, which is a fairly large caveat, but was alert otherwise and was much improved on recent displays. Josko Gvardiol — who took his goal confidently — knew he was in a battle when Newcastle launched two balls in behind inside the first few minutes, but he stood up to it, too. Jack Grealish looked confident, which has not always been the case in the past year, and he did a lot for the cause.

That said, maybe something was amiss, because Guardiola was asked about physicality in the absence of Rodri twice in his post-match press conference. He essentially scoffed the first time.

“I miss Rodri for his qualities and today the physical presence were the balls in behind, when they got the ball they attacked our backs behind Josko and Kyle,” he replied. “In the midfield we were strong.”

Instead, surely, the issue was that the passing and the touches were not always crisp, so Newcastle had plenty of encouragement to fly forward. Guardiola would not have wanted that, not least because the diminutive, scrappy ball players he has picked — Gundogan, Kovacic, Bernardo and Rico Lewis made up four of the front six — are far better suited to manoeuvring the small spaces, not galloping across the large ones, going forwards or backward.

The idea was sound enough — it has won them enough trophies — but the execution was a little short. It is easy to imagine Rodri may have mastered those intricate moments better, and perhaps that is one unavoidable difference when you miss a world-class player.

“Rodri is irreplaceable because he has something difficult to find, but not just here (at City), all around the world,” Guardiola explained on Friday. “If you say, ‘OK Pep, you have money to buy a player like Rodri’. There’s not one in the market, he’s really, really good.”

Even so, City rallied enough after the Gordon penalty (and a subsequent scrappy period), to pin back Newcastle at the end and allow them the breathing room to bring on Jeremy Doku and Savinho, players more geared towards creating chances.

On another day, City would have won this match and the post-game remarks would focus on how well set up they look despite their lynchpin’s absence.

They did not have Kevin De Bruyne, either, and Phil Foden is coming back from some time away and a couple of rusty returns to the pitch. Was this a good point in difficult circumstances or two dropped?

In that sense it is hard to see through the post-Rodri fog; he has been so good for so long it is easy to imagine he never put a foot wrong, that City never struggled with him in the side. Which is pretty close to the truth, but not all of it.

“I want to tell you something,” Guardiola said after the match, the second time he was asked about physicality. “With Rodri in the past, in those actions, always we suffer, because Dan Burn is so strong, and (Fabian) Schar, and Joelinton and the others.”

And there was another message.

“Guys, I am going to tell you because you are going to ask me all the time: of course we are going to miss Rodri because of his physicality and his presence, but he is not there. I would love him to be here but he is not, it is what it is. Sometimes it happens and we have to adapt, we adapted well against a strong side and I see my team, I recognise perfectly my team, and that’s all.”

Some skills may have been missing on Saturday but there was no shortage of fight. And with City, quality is never far away.

(Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)

Sam Lee is the Manchester City correspondent for The Athletic. The 2020-21 campaign will be his sixth following the club, having previously held other positions with Goal and the BBC, and freelancing in South America. Follow Sam on Twitter @SamLee