Pep Guardiola has never hidden his love for international windows, and the latest one could not have been better timed, as it halted a punishing period for the coach and his Manchester City side. For the first time in his 17-year coaching career, Guardiola slumped to four successive defeats in all competitions.
City lost at Tottenham to exit the Carabao Cup, suffered a first defeat in the Champions League for more than two years when they were beaten by Sporting CP and fell five points behind Liverpool in the Premier League by losing at Bournemouth and then Brighton. The two-week hiatus in club action gave City some much-needed respite and some time for their many injury-stricken players to recover. But it will not solve their biggest issue: the continued absence of Rodri.
While John Stones, Jack Grealish, Manuel Akanji, Phil Foden, Matheus Nunes, Nathan Ake, Jeremy Doku and Ruben Dias could all make their respective comebacks against Tottenham on Saturday, the Ballon d’Or-winning Spaniard still faces a long way back from the knee injury he suffered against Arsenal in September, and is not due to return to action until June.
City have a win rate of 74 percent with Rodri in the team, which falls to 67 percent when he is not. If that does not seem like a huge drop-off, consider this: Guardiola’s side were unbeaten in each of the 34 Premier League games the midfielder played last season. Of the four games Rodri missed, City lost three. Between losing to Brentford in November 2022 and the FA Cup final to Manchester United in May 2024, the team were never beaten with Rodri in the line-up.
“There is no-one in the City squad like him, so in the short-term he is irreplaceable,” wrote Jamie Carragher in The Telegraph earlier this month. “The blow can be likened to when Liverpool were denied Virgil van Dijk when defending the title in 2021. It is my belief Jurgen Klopp would have won his second Premier League crown had Van Dijk been fit. There are some players who are so fundamental to a side’s chances of success, the team is unrecognisable without them. Rodri is such a player.”
There is one way for City to replace Rodri, though, and that is to go out and buy a top-class midfielder in the January transfer window. City are definitely not short of money after making a profit of €116m (£97m/$122m) in the transfer market last summer, not to mention a club-record €826m (£690m/$873m) in revenue last year. The club might have been reluctant to use the January window in the past, but doing so now could be the difference between winning a fifth-successive Premier League title and surrendering their crown, as well as having a huge impact in their bid to win the Champions League.
GOAL takes a look at the club’s best options as the transfer window approaches…