By Opta Analyst | Created at 2024-12-30 10:27:09 | Updated at 2025-01-06 10:48:53
1 week ago
Manchester City are so out of sorts without Rodri that they might require an emergency signing in January. Here are a few options they could turn to in the transfer window.
It wouldn’t be very typical of Manchester City to panic buy. That just isn’t their style, and hasn’t been for the whole of Pep Guardiola’s reign.
But these are unprecedented times. They have lost nine and won only two of their last 14 games in all competitions, including a shocking five-game losing streak over October and November during which their season unravelled. Their 2-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday doesn’t mean their current poor run is necessarily behind them.
Their Premier League title defence is as good as over, they are out of the EFL Cup and they are clinging on by a thread in the Champions League. To call this season a fiasco would be an understatement.
There’s plenty about City’s slump that is impossible to explain. Why has Erling Haaland stopped scoring? Is Phil Foden broken? Why are the defenders making so many mistakes?
But there’s a feeling that every case is rooted in the absence of Ballon d’Or winner Rodri from midfield. His season-ending injury is the biggest reason City are struggling so much, and that’s what makes this such uncharted territory for the title winners in the last four Premier League seasons.
The evidence of the months without him proves Guardiola hasn’t yet found a solution in his squad, and with the January transfer window just days away, it wouldn’t be unreasonable if City were to swallow their pride, take a break from their usual approach, and splash some cash.
It won’t be a simple signing to make, though. Bringing someone in who can immediately slot into central midfield in a team as good as City’s is far easier said than done, and also won’t come cheap.
There’s also the fact that Rodri – literally the best player in the world right now – will eventually come back, so any new recruit needs to be aware that they won’t be first choice at the base of City’s midfield next season. The best-case scenario for them would be to play alongside Rodri, so they will also need to be able to play slightly further forward as a number eight. Or they need to be available and willing to join on a short-term loan, which is obviously going to be very unlikely for a player who is also good enough to improve the team straight away.
Finding someone who fits the bill is going to be extremely difficult, but we’ve come up with a few options who could help City out in the short-term and might be helpful to have beyond this season, too.
Leon Goretzka
Germany international Goretzka isn’t the same player as Rodri in a technical capacity, but he is a massive presence in midfield, and given how brittle City have looked over the past couple of months, there is an argument that physicality should be a priority.
Goretzka is a combative 6-foot-2 central midfielder, who gets around the pitch well, wins the ball back consistently, provides a goal threat with late runs into the box, and has a creative streak. His six Bundesliga goals and seven assists from the base of Bayern Munich’s midfield last season make him a similar attacking threat to Rodri, who got eight goals and nine assists in the Premier League, while Goretztka also maintained a Guardiola-worthy pass success rate of 89.4%.
Whether he is disciplined enough to sit in front of the defence or if he covers quite enough ground to deputise sufficiently for Rodri is up for debate, but he is a very good player with plenty of top-level experience. That should make him an attractive option.
He has also lost his place in Bayern’s starting XI this season under Vincent Kompany, and that could make signing him in January that much more achievable.
Martín Zubimendi
Looking for a new Rodri? Why not turn to the guy who replaced him at half-time in the Euro 2024 final win against England in the summer and looked perfectly at home playing the Rodri role?
Martín Zubimendi made the most important appearance of his career in a hugely pressurised environment in Berlin, but more than stood up to the task. Possibly the best indicator that Zubimendi did an adequate job is that Rodri’s absence was barely noticed.
Spain lost a player who had suffered defeat in only one match – last season’s FA Cup final – in a run of 80 games stretched over more than a year for either club or country, and there was no palpable weakness to the team. It makes sense, then, that Zubimendi will be linked as a possible stopgap in the Rodri-shaped hole leaking goals in the heart of City’s midfield.
At club level, he sits in front of the Real Sociedad defence, breaking up opposition attacks, ranking in the top 10 in La Liga this season for tackles (43), and dictating play, with only five other non-defenders having made more passes than him (914).
He does a lot of the less attacking stuff that Rodri does, rarely ever getting into the attacking third, but could probably slot in fairly seamlessly. His defensive work would obviously be a huge help this season, but it isn’t entirely clear whether he could play alongside Rodri further down the line.
The biggest potential sticking point is that Zubimendi turned down the opportunity to sign for Liverpool in the summer, insisting that playing for Real Sociedad was too important to him to countenance leaving. “A lot of what I am is part of La Real,” he said. “It is my life.”
There is some talk that he is more open to a move now, but there is still no guarantee City would be able to persuade him to go to cold, rainy Manchester, so this could be a tricky one to pull off.
Frenkie de Jong
Not for the first time in recent history, Barcelona need money. And not for the first time in Frenkie de Jong’s time at Barcelona, his future at the club is up in the air.
The Netherlands international missed much of 2024 with an ankle injury, returning to action in October, before Barcelona’s form nosedived spectacularly just a few weeks later. The game where things turned for Barca – a 1-0 defeat to Real Sociedad – was De Jong’s first start in the league since April, and he hasn’t started another game in La Liga since.
He is obviously an exceptional footballer, and he is desperate to make a success of his career at Barcelona, but at the moment, he isn’t a key part of Hansi Flick’s plans. Now in his sixth season at the club, where Flick is focusing on youth to such an extent that De Jong is at the more experienced end of the squad, you could understand if he was considering his options.
From City’s perspective, De Jong isn’t the midfield general that Rodri is: his game is far more about ball retention and progression than winning it back, and that is at least part of the reason he hasn’t been entirely successful at Barcelona. He is at his best with a ball-winner alongside him – which could make him perfect to play with Rodri – but he can be exposed if he is the deepest player on his own – a bit like Mateo Kovacic, Rico Lewis, or Ilkay Gündogan.
So, would he be the perfect solution to City’s immediate problems? Almost certainly not. Could he improve the team right now while also providing long-term help? Most definitely.
Pascal Groβ
If City are looking for a short-term option, could former Brighton midfielder Pascal Groβ be the man for the job?
Press resistant, proven in the Premier League, and physically resilient – at least in terms of the very few injuries he suffers – Groβ could be a quick, cheap, reliable solution to City’s problems.
He left Brighton last season having finally earned his first Germany caps in 2023 before then making it to Euro 2024 for what was a rather late peak to his slow rise of a career. Now playing for boyhood club Borussia Dortmund in his native country, it might be difficult to persuade him to come back to England, but equally, things aren’t exactly going swimmingly in Germany, with Dortmund sixth in the table but only two points above the bottom half and already out of the DFB-Pokal. Maybe Groβ might consider a quick route out – or even just a short break away – for the glitz and the glamour of Manchester City?
Able to play as the deepest midfielder, higher up in midfield or even at full-back, Groβ’s versatility would be extremely useful if City were to keep him on beyond this season, while his ability to keep the ball would mean he is likely to be able to handle playing under Guardiola. In his first foray in the Champions League this season, he has maintained a pass success rate of 90% across six appearances, while only five players have created more chances than his total of 15.
He was a late developer, so nobody should be put off by the fact he is 33. What’s more, City need immediate help and a ready-made Premier League player. Groβ could be just that.
Exequiel Palacios
Palacios could well be up for a move having become something of a fringe player for Bayer Leverkusen, with Robert Andrich preferred in midfield alongside Granit Xhaka this season.
A very adept footballer, Palacios is more daring in possession than his pass success rate of 92.1% in the Bundesliga last season suggests. In just 348 minutes of action this season, he already has four assists, meaning he is averaging an assist every 87 minutes of action – the best rate in Europe’s top five leagues (min. 200 minutes played).
He is primarily a ball-winner, though, ranking fifth for tackles per 90 in the Champions League this season (4.1) of players to play at least 300 minutes.
He isn’t a yellow-card magnet like Rodri, picking up only 13 cautions in his 93 Bundesliga appearances over five years at Leverkusen, and that discipline would certainly be valuable at City, who can’t really afford to be without anyone else in central midfield.
Promote From Within
Finding someone who can improve the team but is willing to sign for City in the knowledge that Rodri will be back eventually might just prove too difficult. So, maybe they should look to their current set-up.
City have one of the best academies in the country, so is Guardiola best off searching the youth teams for someone to throw in at the deep end?
One alternative option in the senior squad who he hasn’t yet tried during this poor run is John Stones, who has some experience in central midfield, playing a significant chunk of the 2023-24 Premier League season there.
However, he has struggled terribly with injuries this season, and given his history it would be pretty unwise of Guardiola to expect to be able to rely on the England man.
In Máximo Perrone, meanwhile, City already own a defensive midfielder who has previously called Rodri “a role model”.
There are a couple of problems here, though. The first – and undoubtedly the biggest – is that Perrone is on loan for the season at Como in Serie A. The second is that he has been out with a thigh injury since late October.
However, reports suggest a January return from that injury is a possibility. The fact he has been learning under someone who is heavily influenced by Guardiola in Cesc Fàbregas is another positive. Earlier in the season, he got a decent amount of experience playing in a top European league, so there is plenty of reason to be optimistic about his City future.
If he can get back to fitness and City can find a way to get him out of his loan deal in January, he could be a better-value option and a sensible one to consider.
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