Why Rodri Is The REASON for Manchester City's DECLINE

Manchester City, once unbeatable under Pep Guardiola, has recently been facing a major slump. But what's really behind their struggles? It all points to one key missing piece: Rodri. In this video, we break down how Rodri’s absence has disrupted City’s entire system and why the team has been struggling without him.

Rodri’s importance: The engine of Pep’s tactics and the glue that held everything together. Without him, City has struggled in crucial games.
The Lone 6 Role: We’ll explore why Rodri's position is irreplaceable in Pep’s system and why his absence has caused chaos.
Potential replacements: We dive into four possible players who could step in and save City’s campaign:
Joshua Kimmich: A perfect fit with experience under Pep.
Martín Zubimendi: A seamless transition from Rodri with impressive vision and composure.
Tijani Reijnders: A raw talent with potential to be molded by Pep.
Manuel Locatelli: A steady, underrated option for controlling the game.

Join us as we analyze Manchester City’s current decline and how Rodri's absence has exposed cracks in their system, with possible solutions for Pep Guardiola’s squad. Will Kimmich or Zubimendi be the perfect replacements? Watch till the end to find out!

#Rodri #ManchesterCity #Football #Soccer #PremierLeague #EPL #ChampionsLeague #PepGuardiola #FootballTactics #City #SoccerAnalysis

[Trizzy-by]

Honestly city should be performing with or without him. One player should not determine the entire team but I guess this proves how good and important he was for city.

[different_breed]

The problem for Man City is not only Rodri's injury, its poor squad building by Pep as well, there is no dedicated holding midfielder in this City team apart from Rodri, so Rodri had to consistently have to play more minutes and those minutes have come to haunt both him and Pep. Pep's new 3-1-6 setup is where Rodri is isolated as the solo pivot. Rodri is a freak, he's good in terms of almost everything passing, playmaking, positioning, winning ball back, press ressistant, IQ so on and so forth. Even with Rodri, in this new setup, it started showing cracks and its vulnerabilities last season but back then everything seemed going right. Now, with Rodri's injury, these cracks are deepening. When Kovacic is playing as the solo pivot, they're missing Rodri's positioning along with Walker's recovery pace while dealing vs counters. This season even Kyle Walker is out of form and declining. Foden hasnt been the same since the euros and Bernardo is also completely out of form. With this new setup, teams have figured out one thing, stay narrow and deep, win the ball back and start counter attack. To counter this Pep brought Doku and Savinho who are genuine dribblers to get past that 1 v 1 and do damage, but having dribblers means having risk takers who can also lose the ball and losing the ball means conceeding counters directly. Grealish has only played 35% of City's minutes and Nunez (a natural box 2 box mid) is doing that work as a winger. And my brother Pep has forgotten two valuable lessons in life:
1) Too much of anything is bad, be it sugar, salt or not having a backup pivot and sticking to the same player for almost every game.

2) This setup is like Pep's Bayern setup, he played 2-2-6 pushing both fullbacks very high and when they lost the ball Bayern suffered counter attacks. This new is just that with 4 defensive players on the pitch, if the press gets passed by, you are directly conceeding a counter attack.

The solution rn is to probably roll back to that 3-2-5 shape which he used at some point having somebody like John Stones helper for Kovacic in the double pivot system.

[RegalHyperus]

Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante "Rodri"
(noun) A king of midfielders who makes even the earth his friend with his absolute courage and unwavering ability to get things done.

[hashimkimwaga]

Thats why there is a top manager and top players to change tactics and adapt to new challenges regardless who plays

[christopher_silver]

Looking at Man City & Real right now it's clear why Rodri won the ballon d'or

[akinolaphilip]

I will keep arguing with anyone. The Balon D'or revealed totally Pep's secret. Now all teams are attacking Rodri's position as Pep hasn't got a replacement for him 😢

[xdtweety]

it also is the fact that the prem caught up to them.
any game since that arsenal 2-2 is the same
score early, low block.
we have city figured out and they lack the talent (rodri) to break through it again.

[musakdaudkemi]

What if I tell you Rodri is not actually the problem? He was injured last season as well. Pep let go of players he didn't replace or not with like for like players. Players like Marez, Parmer, Cancelo, Zinchenko and more. City's defense had been affected more by this decision.

[Nashr]

Imagine Real Madrid getting Rodri instead of Mbappé after Kroos leaving.

[lenneth]

This shows how fraudulent Pep is. No plan B, no management skills, only relies on the best players in the world to carry him. First Messi, now Rodri.

[KnismoFourlington]

Everything said perfect! Please do a video about how haaland can be utilised better at city (more counterattacks, throughballs)

[nazmulahsan]

they don't get the value until they are gone...kroos...rodri #number6

[PaulineMutinda-pbot]

Rodri, , we almost to term this guy to be the legend of Manchester city like kdb

[ezekielphiri]

Lucas Barios from Atletico would be a great understudy

[Xoman]

This video being recent, it has surprised me that Samuele Ricci has not been mentioned. From my point of view, only Martin Zubimendi and Samuele Ricci have a chance of playing the role of holding midfielder at City at a level close to Rodri so that City can dominate again. And also, it might not be instant, it might take some time until either player fits in.

[Nachobacofaxo]

i mean its also that they dont have a good cdm backup for rodri

[kc]

Zubimendi is 100% the best option out of all of them to Replace Rodri

[TheEverSoTalented]

Rodri is most obviously a BIG miss....but people are overlooking something that is staring them in the face John Stones is a player that makes center back look at the Manchester derby, going into extra time a center back received the ball wide on the right next to the touchline - now what would a City team in form do A/ smash it as hard as possible into 'row Z'?
B/keep possession (thereby using up time) and then IF closed down pass back to the goalie and drop back to make an angle in case the goalie gets closed down (and so on n so on!)
C/ Do whatever that was in the game against Utd, something that I can't remember the last time I saw a Pep team do CB knowing they are 1-0 up with barely mins to go and NO Utd forward harrying an tackling to win back the ball, so NO pressure if it had been John Stones he would drop a shoulder then step into the midfield area himself...that's the confidence they are lacking and was second nature to City, zPep can't legislate for what Citys CB did....you could see through the TV he was thinking we've been losing we are 1, 0 up
so I don't want to take any of those three pass back to my goalie so at least I won't be blamed, that's why he turned blindly from 5 or 19 yards inside his half and though he knew that ball was not the way City plays which is how he goes to pass to the goalie - so he can wipe his hands of any blame but as his not used to playing it back that far he fails to put enough strength into the back pass it was a case of trying to not get dispossessed whilst being caught in 3 panick sets in and makes a crisis out of a drama and City are scared to play their pass n move....as they have no confidence that they used too imo!

[That.boy.kapcee]

Man city's need for rodri is not on the ball, is those transitions and counter attacks that the opponent make when they get the ball in their own half, rodri is the player who stops that, that's the only case

[TheLetterK]

Rodri isn't vital he's a nessessity to the team