Confirmed damage Rodrigo Hernandezwho is suffering from a torn ligament in his right knee, Pep Guardiolaat his office in the sports city of Manchester City, He started racking his brain to find a solution. “It’s my job to find a way to play with him,” said the coach, who never hides his thoughts. Rodri: “It is irreplaceable.”
The loss of the Euro Cup MVP, who may be out for the entire season, is first and foremost among his teammates. The Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes, Rico Lewis, Ilkay Gündogan and even John Stoneswhich was once deployed in the center of the field. These are the options Guardiola You will be able to drive until at least January, when the city You can go to the winter market to bring reinforcements.
The first of the possible additions is at home. Oh Calvin Phillipsthe midfielder signed by City in the summer of 2022, paying 50 million to leedsto be with Rodri. The midfielder, who has fallen out of favor since his move to the ‘Sky Blues’, is on loan at Town of Ipswichwhere he was only a starter in two of the first five Premier games.
If you like it, the city He could cut the loan in January, but the Englishman’s performance at the Etihad leaves a lot to be desired. In the season and a half he was there, he played 31 games, without combining or justifying his price.
Go to the winter market
Accustomed to dealing with damages to what is at home, going to the market is not new for Guardiola midway through the season and he did so in 2018-2019, when a plague of defensive injuries forced him to pay 65 million in Athletic by clause Aymeric Laporte.
This citydespite the dark cloud represented by its dispute with the Premier League over 115 financial irregularities, has enough money in its pocket to carry out some kind of merger and its net income in the summer is more than 130 million euros, between signing and sale .
If he city look at the market and think “is there a midfielder to approach who looks like him Rodri?”, the options are very limited and those that exist, very expensive.
According to BeSoccer data, the most similar are Granit Xhaka, Hakan Çalhanoglou and Martín Zubimendi, if statistics such as successful passes, recoveries, transfer passes, defeats and duels won are taken as a metric.
In the case of Xhakahis old age and past in Arsenal As captain, in addition to having a more offensive vocation, almost like an interior, he was automatically excluded, while Çalhanoglou, who started as a playmaker in Hamburg until converted to a pivot on Interis a very important piece for the Italians, in addition to not accomplishing any task that cannot be done by what the ‘citizens’ already have on staff).
Zubimendi this is probably the most similar Rodri, although the pass data of the two differs greatly. While the sa Royal Society He barely reached 40 successful passes per game, Rodri rose to 90; on successful progressive passes, Zubimendi gives 4.3 and Rodri8.7, while passing the last third, Rodri leading by 7 per game Zubimendi.
In defensive duels, interceptions, recoveries, aerial duels won and lost, Rodri and Zubimendi They are almost identical.
The problem with the Basque is that he has ruled out a trip to the Premier this summer, when the Liverpool He tried to pay his clause and he refused and renewed on Royal Societydespite offering him less money than the Anfield club. In January, unless the situation suddenly changes, the city It was very difficult to convince him.
As for the other options displayed by the BeSoccer system, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Amadou Onana impossible, because they are in Real Madrid and Aston Villa, Pierre-Emile Hojbjergnow at Marseille, never dazzled in the Premier League after his time at Tottenhamand Bruno Guimaraeswhich is perhaps an interesting alternative, is higher than the price the user is willing to pay. city.
The Brazilian is far away Rodri in passing metrics – at the level of Zubimendi-, but equal to him in the defensive aspect. However, belonging to a priori rival clubs such as Newcastleand a price tag of more than 120 million euros, almost makes a possible January transfer attempt impossible.
There are also options in Italy, such as Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Stanislav Lobotka (Naples) and Bryan Cristante (Roma), But his lack of experience in the Premier and the short period of adaptation, because someone ready from the first minute will be needed, these profiles are in question.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
