Cool, composed and able to chess-move in the tight, ever-shifting zones of the elite game’s midfield, Rodri is a serious contender for Manchester City’s player of the season.
In a stellar squad Erling Haaland may hog the headlines yet Rodri is Pep Guardiola’s ball-hogger supreme, a player the manager might privately admit is more vital to his pass-and-move machine than the 48-goal man.
Some 27 minutes into City’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich, Rodri illustrated why by showcasing another of his glittering attributes via a classy finish that was the perfect start to the perfectly executed 4-1 aggregate win.
Collecting from John Stones 25 yards out and on a tight angle from Yann Sommer’s goal, the Universidad de Castellón business administration graduate switched to his left foot and sent a fierce shot beyond Bayern’s keeper.
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Rodri has form for the killer instinct and big-game temperament that are a calling card of the best. In last season’s final Premier League game against Aston Villa he fired in another long-range goal as City drew level from 2-0 down, going on to the 3-2 victory that sealed the title.
Now Guardiola’s gilded side are a maximum of 13 victories from a potential treble, and Rodri, speaking in flawless English, is allowing himself to dream.
“That is what we work for,” says the 26-year-old. “It’s a long way but the mentality is the next game. We have the FA Cup, which is very important for the club and for me as it’d be the first time I’ve won it. We have a good rival in Sheffield [United].”
The semi-final is on Saturday at Wembley. Dispatch the Blades and the victor of Sunday’s Brighton-Manchester United tie awaits in May. Wednesday brings the visit of Arsenal as City seek to close a gap that could be seven points when the Premier League leaders arrive but which, if they win, plus their game in hand and remaining six, will bring a third consecutive title.
To keep the chance of treble-winning immortality alive, City must eliminate Real Madrid in the Champions League. Carlo Ancelotti’s holders broke City hearts at the same stage last year when a 5-3 aggregate lead was overturned by two Rodrygo goals after the second leg had entered the 90th minute and Karim Benzema’s extra-time penalty.
Rodri understands how City can be inspired by this. “Always when you have a big defeat you learn,” he says. “You have more experience. The team is going to give its best and try to make it different.”
Joshua Kimmich’s late spot-kick in Munich on Wednesday cancelled out Haaland’s finish and ended a run of 10 consecutive City wins. Yet this is the form required in the campaign’s defining phase, and comes after Guardiola’s men struggled to find their rhythm.
Of what changed, Rodri says: “We identified the fact that we needed to punish our rivals. The quality of the performance was there, we were playing good, but weren’t as consistent as we are now.
“Now we know that if we want to achieve everything then every game is a final and we have to win – that is the mentality. It’s something that you feel inside and how you talk with the team – we had a conversation. It’s not enough to play well, you need to punish. I remember the game in Nottingham [a 1-1 draw with Forest in February]; these kind of games cannot happen.
“Sometimes when you have bad news or bad moments, it can make you grow. You can learn. From that moment we switched on and you see it now, the behaviour and the character of the team. That is where we have improved: to finish the games. You’ve seen it in the last months that almost every chance we score.”
For all their silken stuff City are a muscular, determined force too, as embodied by the 6ft 3in Rodri, who says: “The basics in modern football right now are that you have to be aggressive, you have to be solid. Look at Erling and Kevin [De Bruyne], they made a great effort [against Bayern]. You don’t see players of this quality running the way they do. It’s the key to success.”
Nathan Aké confirms City’s new grit. “Games like this maybe before we didn’t like to be defending as much and struggling as much,” he says. “But we knew this was going to be tough and we accepted it and suffered.”
The sole concern to emerge from the schooling of Bayern is a potential hamstring injury to Aké, who has become part of Guardiola’s regular defence. “I hope it’s not too bad,” he says. “I’ve had it before and it feels a bit less to be honest, but you never know with these things so we will do the ultrasounds.”
City are two months from the potential glory of claiming the FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League. To have any chance of making this an all-time season Rodri, surely, has to stay fit.
– Guardian
