The Rodri Role — 2022/23
Pep Guardiola has an undying affection for midfielders. He could name eleven midfielders in his starting lineup, and it wouldn’t surprise anyone if it actually happens. Guardiola was himself one of the best defensive midfielders in Johan Cruyff’s dream team that won several trophies in the 1990s. From a coaching perspective, his sides rely on the defensive midfielders to control the proceedings from the center of the pitch.
The visionary manager has developed elite players in his position over the years, establishing them as the metronome in his successful teams. Rodri, however, took his time to mature at Manchester City. He unquestionably had big boots to fill in his first season as Fernandinho ran the show before the Spaniard arrived in Manchester.
Rodri’s struggles in his first season were evident. The pundits started questioning his dynamism and whether his abilities suited Manchester City. He was also not helped by the fact that City were going through a tough season, with several injuries to key players, especially in defense. But the tides turned the following season and under the guidance of Guardiola and, most importantly, Juanma Lillo (Man City assistant manager at that time) he has become one of the world’s best defensive midfielders and mastered the role.
Speaking on Rodri’s meteoric rise back last year, Guardiola…. well, compared him to a driver. “We’ve tried to help him to understand the game, especially what the holding midfielder has to do. Last season he moved too much. The holding midfielder has to be there. Don’t move. Like if you drive a car and move to the back seat, you can crash. The driver has to be in the front. He’s getting better reading the situation and defensively he has more presence. With the ball, he knows exactly where the spaces are to attack and the tempo we have to play. “
However, the Premier League is evolving and so is Rodri’s role in possession. Teams are looking to block the midfielder’s passing lanes in order to prevent him from controlling the tempo. And Guardiola, ever the innovator, has once again come up with the goods to get the better of his opponents, with Rodri taking up interesting positions on the field. In this article, I examined five games where Manchester City’s opponents took a variety of defensive approaches, as well as Rodri’s role in each of the games, indicating his ever-present importance to the team.
West Ham United vs Manchester City
The opening day of the Premier League saw City overcome West Ham by two goals to nil, thanks to Erling Haaland’s brace. Of course, Haaland stole the headlines, but Rodri had a part to play in both goals. West Ham lined up in a 4–2–3–1 shape out of possession with the wingers — Fornals and Bowen marking City’s inverted fullbacks, while Lanzini cut the passing lane to Rodri. Dias and Ake were given time on the ball as the Blues controlled proceedings like usual.
Fornals was dragged inside as Walker started drifting, allowing Foden, who started on the right side, to isolate himself against West Ham’s fullback. He linked with De Bruyne as Guardiola’s side were able to penetrate West Ham’s block by moving the ball wide and delivering dangerous crosses into the box.
Midway through the first half, Moyes shifted his team’s shape to more of a 4–4–2, with the front two blocking the lane to Walker and Rodri, while Fornals moved deeper to support his fullback. And this is where Rodri’s intelligence came into play. In the below sequence of play, he escapes his marker and positions himself as a third center back, therefore creating a 3v2 situation in the first line. Cancelo, meanwhile, makes a move into the half space, so Gundogan drops deeper to attract his marker — Soucek.
As Gundogan plays it back to Ake, Rodri once again drifts backward and quickly releases it to Cancelo, who is in space as Soucek is out of position. From there, Gundogan and Cancelo link up before the former finds Haaland’s run. The number nine eventually won a penalty and scored his first goal in City colors.
Rodri was also involved in the second goal as his line-breaking pass found De Bruyne in the right half-space. The Belgian ultimately provided his trademark through ball to Haaland, who calmly converted the chance. More than Guardiola’s system, Rodri’s ability to read in-game situations and control the tempo was on show and, as a result, City found solutions to get past the West Ham block with relative ease.
Manchester City vs Crystal Palace
Patrick Vieira’s defensive structure caused troubles for Manchester City last year, as they struggled to break down Crystal Palace. Of course, having Erling Haaland this time proved to be the difference, but Guardiola’s positional tweaks certainly had a part to play as well. Ahead of facing City, Palace had success against Liverpool by utilizing a 5–4–1 formation by staying compact.
So, Vieira continued with the same system in front of a packed Etihad Stadium. And his team immediately went two goals up and looked constantly threatening on the break. City’s system included a front five with Cancelo and Walker once again inverting, but as Palace were leading, Cancelo effectively moved further forward, making it a front six against Palace’s back five. Nevertheless, the blues found it hard to break their opponents’ low block, and hence Guardiola resorted to using Rodri in unfamiliar territory.
Odsonne Édouard — Palace’s number 9, like every other striker, restricted Rodri from receiving the ball in the center of the pitch. But as the ball shifts to the right to Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva makes a run from the half-space, which in turn drags center-back Marc Guehi. This is now the cue for Rodri to attack the space created by Silva’s diversion.
He makes the move into the space, as Mahrez cuts in and finds him, but Andersen is quick to read the situation and jumps onto Rodri. However, dragging Andersen was a part of the plan since Haaland was on acres of space in the box.
In the below GIF, a similar movement occurs, with Silva first dragging Guehi, followed by Rodri’s movement into the space. Mahrez’s final ball was poor, but the idea was clear. This particular movement is very effective against a team that defends deep, and it was also brushed up on by Ahmed Walid in his piece for the Athletic.
Rodri constantly made the movement, but once City recycled possession from right to left, he immediately moved centrally and made himself available with a blindside movement away from his marker Edouard. City, as a result, were able to drag their opponents and stretch the pitch to create chances from wide areas.
Additionally, the Blues benefitted from this in two ways. Of course, the first was Rodri’s movement. It caused problems for Palace’s back line as the center-backs were dragged onto the runners and the midfielders struggled to pick up Rodri’s runs. The second, though, was the most important factor that shifted the momentum of the game.
Eze was key to the Eagles on the transition as he was positioned high up the pitch and was not tasked to track the runners. However, with Guehi shifting across the pitch and Rodri making runs into the space, Eze was ultimately forced to track back and provide support to his fullback. As a result, Palace’s threat on the break was limited and City kept mounting the pressure.
Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest
Manchester City thumped Steve Cooper’s Nottingham Forest 6–0 at the Etihad courtesy of you know who’s hat trick. Forest interestingly started in a 5–3–2 shape with Cooper instructing the midfield three to man mark City’s midfield which consisted of Rodri, Gundogan, and Julian Alvarez. Forest’s wide center backs were also quick to close City in the half-spaces.
Rodri started the game in his natural number 6 position but was barged by Ryan Yates whenever he received the ball. So, the former Atletico Madrid man positioned himself wide to stretch the Forest midfield three and create gaps in midfield. This was also aided by Gundogan’s movement on the right side as his constant underlaps dragged his marker and provided the space for Bernardo Silva (right winger) to carry the ball infield and Julian Alvarez centrally.
City also had a 3v2 advantage in the first line and with Rodri’s wide positioning, one of Stones, Dias, or Walker was able to carry the ball into the space created. Moreover, since Cancelo held the width on the left side, Foden also started dropping deep in the left half-space, therefore dislodging Forest’s midfield man-marking approach and creating a 4v3 in the center of the pitch. The Citizens had numerical superiority all over the pitch and Forest certainly struggled to deal with it.
Manchester City vs Southampton
Manchester City were below par against Southampton during the 2021/22 campaign and both their ties resulted in an unfashionable draw. In fact, the Saints were only one of three teams to stop City from winning in the two fixtures. The reason lay in Ralph Hasenhuttl’s high pressing 4–2–2–2 approach as City were closed down quickly when they had possession.
Yet again, Hasenhuttl went for the same system, but Guardiola used a double pivot when building out from the back, with Silva joining Rodri and the fullbacks playing wide. City also had a low buildup structure, and the double pivot were close to each other, looking to lure Southampton’s two central midfielders (Diallo and Ward Prowse). The Saints’ front four were narrow and, as a result, Cancelo and especially Foden found joy on the left side, often creating overloads on that side of the pitch.
Rodri’s presence deeper in the field invited Diallo to pressurize him, and this created space for De Bruyne on the right side. Diallo was often caught in two minds and combined with Rodri’s press resistance, City were able to bypass the pressure with one or two touch passes.
While Rodri had Diallo on his hook, the rest was left up to his partner in crime — Bernardo Silva. The two exhibited control with clever movements and their ability to bait opponents in possession was extraordinary, to say the least. Nonetheless, it was Rodri who was involved in City’s first three goals, and it captured his all-round role in the team perfectly.
For the opening goal, he won the second ball and resisted Diallo’s challenge before teeing up Foden. Foden’s pass ultimately found Cancelo, whose trickery was too hot to handle. The second one came shortly, and Rodri was once again at the heart of it, winning the ball in midfield, which consequently resulted in Foden’s goal. In the second half, his delightful and rather typical cross-field pass into the box found Mahrez for City’s third.
This game clearly showcased both Rodri and Bernardo Silva’s importance to the side, but it also displayed how Guardiola uses his players differently against various systems to get the better of his opponents.
Leicester City vs Manchester City
Brendan Rodgers’ side were battling relegation but picked up form with a run of two consecutive victories before facing Manchester City. So, Leicester City opting to shift from their natural attacking 4–2–3–1 system to a more defensive 5–4–1 was rather surprising. Nevertheless, City have faced several of these approaches in the past, with the most recent one being Crystal Palace. Rodgers certainly had the plan to restrict any movement on the edge of the box and most of the half was played in Leicester’s territory.
But once again, Pep had a weapon up his sleeve in Rodri. Similar to the game against Crystal Palace, City build up in a 2–2–6 shape with Rodri looking to target the space between the middle and left central defender. But there were two problems. Leicester were largely comfortable defending their box since they did not have Erling Haaland to deal with. And the Foxes did not commit a center back to track De Bruyne’s under-lapping runs, so there was practically no space for Rodri to move into.
As the half wore on, City used their two best creators, De Bruyne and Cancelo out wide to swing in deliveries into the box. So, instead of targeting the space between the center halves, Rodri started getting into a typical number nine positions in the box. His cue was when De Bruyne received the pass in the wide areas and once the ball moves in the Belgian’s direction, he would make a run into the six-yard box.
The below passage of play sums it up, as Rodri almost scores a goal via De Bruyne’s cross. City, by all means, had to be patient and deliver crosses into the box as Leicester defended the central zone in numbers.
Rodri is clearly one of Manchester City’s crucial players and his composure and ability in and out of possession dictate City’s rhythm. But with teams using ways to neutralize his presence, Guardiola and Rodri himself seem to have adapted to it in different ways. Guardiola’s little in-game tweaks go unnoticed, and these tweaks are one of the reasons for Manchester City’s continuous success in the past few years. It will certainly be interesting to see how Pep utilizes Rodri in the upcoming games, and something we should keep an eye on.
