Manchester City are adapting to life without Rodri after their midfield talisman was ruled out for the rest of the 2024/25 season.
The Spaniard went down injured during City’ 1-1 draw with Arsenal last month, with the club confirming he had ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament.
That has left the champions unable to call upon the player FourFourTwo have ranked as the best defensive midfielder in the world as Pep Guardiola searches for a solution to what could be a season-defining problem.
Rico Lewis identified as Rodri replacement at Manchester City
The City boss has so far turned to Mateo Kovacic to replace Rodri, and with Kalvin Phillips unable to be recalled from his Ipswich Town loan spell, the Croatian is the only like-for-like replacement for the Euro 2024 winner in Guardiola’s squad.
Positional flexibility is a key part of the modern game, however, and former City defender Richard Dunne believes that right-back Rico Lewis can offer Guardiola another option in defensive midfield.
“Rico Lewis has already proven that he can play in Rodri’s place,” Dunne told BetVictor. “He’s been very good this season and has been one of City’s key players.
“He obviously can’t do the exact same job to the same effect as Rodri, but he can do a slightly different job equally well. He’s a superb player who can operate in several different roles.”
Rodri’s record in a Manchester City shirt is almost without comparison, with the 28-year-old going 74 games unbeaten before last season’s FA Cup final defeat to Manchester United, but Dunne believes there is enough quality in the squad to compensate for his loss.
“Rodri is obviously still a big loss and the stats show they’re worse off without him, but the more the players get used to him not being there, the more the stats will start to even themselves out,” he added.
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“They’ve got too much quality to just rely on one player, regardless of how good he is. In a couple of weeks’ time, they’ll have worked it out and will be as strong as ever.”
In FourFourTwo’s view, Lewis certainly has many of the attributes to succeed in this position and Guardiola’s ability to set his team up to leverage his squad’s strengths mean there is a very decent chance we will see the 19-year-old in this role at some point this season.
