Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville believes that Pep Guardiola would probably have something ‘up his sleeve’ to fill the void created by Rodri’s absence. Rodri, who is one of the favorites to win the Ballon d’Or this year, got injured in Manchester City’s last Premier League draw against Arsenal.
Who Is the Rodri Replacement? Neville Thinks Guardiola Has Something Up His Sleeve
Rodri is one of the key blocks in Pep’s team building and is expected to be out for a long time. To tackle that, the former Man United man thinks that Pep would have something in his backyard.
“I was thinking: ‘What will Pep Guardiola have up his sleeve?’ You think of a man who put [Javier] Mascherano at center-half for Barcelona, a man who’s put players into different positions that we would never have expected as a manager.
“And I was thinking: ‘Who is he going to put in there? How is he going to play to compensate for the loss of this probably talisman type figure?’ I think of only [Erling] Haaland probably that you could take out of the City team that would damage them as much as Rodri. I know [Kevin] De Bruyne’s there, I’m not ignoring him, but if you were Arsenal and you could take one player out of the City team, because they’ve lost [Julian] Alvarez you’d take Haaland out probably number one, you’d probably take Rodri out number two.”
According to Neville, John Stones, who has played both as a centre-back and a midfielder before might be Pep’s one option.
“Does John Stones become Rodri for the next six months? He’ll be working on that already Pep Guardiola. He won’t just sit back and do nothing. I can’t see him just doing the ordinary,” Neville said.
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