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How do Manchester City manage the Rodri dilemma
How do Manchester City manage the Rodri dilemma?
Manchester City are in flux.
Replacing a manager after 10 years is no easy feat, let alone when there appears to be a squad overhaul too.
Four of the starters in City's Treble-winning side of 2022-23 - Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, Bernardo Silva and John Stones - have left this summer, with the Blues signing £116m Elliot Anderson and promising 17-year-old Jeremy Monga.
And the changes might not end there.
Fresh from captaining Spain to World Cup victory, Rodri will head for back surgery on Monday with just a year left on his contract, amid increasing speculation about his future.
It is not clear how long the 30-year-old will spend on the sidelines, but one thing new boss Enzo Maresca was clear on in his first news conference was that he wants to keep him.
But with reports that Real Madrid are "operating on the basis" of Rodri joining them,, external what do City do?
Will they look to cash in when Rodri returns to fitness, or keep to Maresca's stance?
And how might Maresca's midfield operate - with or without Rodri?
When Rodri returned from an anterior cruciate ligament injury last year, there will have been plenty who wondered whether he would return to the Ballon d'Or-winning levels he had reached at his peak.
Pep Guardiola - the man Maresca has replaced - said last October: "In the World Cup, he will be the best Rodri, and next season he will be the best Rodri."
Guardiola was proved right on the first count. Not only did Rodri captain Spain to World Cup success but he was also awarded the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
Maresca was unequivocal when asked for his view on Friday.
"I think every manager wants to have Rodri because he is a top player," he said.
But now, surgery on Monday... he needs a holiday... he needs to rest and recover and then he will be back with us.
The plan seems clear, therefore - look to retain one of the best players in world football rather than sell him.
But there will have to be contingencies in place.
One of these will be the presence of Anderson, while City are monitoring 18-year-old Lille midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi, who impressed for Morocco in the World Cup.
To understand how Rodri, Anderson and someone like Bouaddi might come together, it is key to understand Maresca's game model.
As a disciple of positional play, he draws comparisons between his football and chess.
"There are a lot of similarities," Maresca said. "The most important is positional play and strategy.
For a coach, it's important to have the mentality of a chess player: develop a plan, study counter-moves, choose the arrangement of the pieces.
Maresca's strategy has largely been rooted in an on-the-ball shape that looks like a 3-2-2-3.
One of Rodri's most useful qualities in a Maresca side would be his ability to move between these predefined positions on the pitch.
Throughout the World Cup, for example, we saw him drop into the backline when former City team-mate Aymeric Laporte pushed up with the ball.
Naturally, Rodri spent most of the game in a holding midfield position, but when space opened up he was more than capable of pushing forward too.
At their best, Maresca's sides use rotations of players within the 3-2-2-3. His innovation often comes in the form of creating this shape in new ways.
Defending as a 4-4-2 before attacking in the 3-2-2-3, it was Stones who stepped up from centre-back into a midfield pair with Rodri during City's Treble-winning season, when Maresca was assistant manager.
At Chelsea, one of Maresca's more unique tweaks involved playing Moises Caicedo at right-back. Defending with a back four before again attacking in a 3-2-2-3 shape, Caicedo would move from right-back into one of the holding midfield positions.
Here is where the signing of Anderson makes such sense.
Throughout his career, the 23-year-old has played in every midfield and attacking position at one point. For England, he has frequently dropped into defence to form a back five out of possession.
Alongside Rodri, Anderson would be able to sit deep, allowing the Spaniard to showcase his attacking quality - and vice versa.
Both players would be capable of taking turns in dropping deeper to maintain the balance of the team if strong carriers of the ball like Marc Guehi or Josko Gvardiol were to push forward.
Piggy-backing on the success of Rodri's work with Bernardo Silva, City would hope their new versatile and combative winger-turned-holding-midfielder will bring about similar success.
Bouaddi - like Anderson - has played in a number of roles, more specifically holding midfield, right-back and centre-back.
His ability to occupy those positions - with strong defending and elegance on the ball - replicates some of the work Stones did for City.
The club are looking at young and intelligent footballers capable of playing for possession-heavy sides. More important, however, is their ability to be positionally versatile across the roles Maresca's system demands.
When numerous players can move into any of the positions that open up, it can result in a structured yet fluid team that become harder for the opposition to defend against – think Luis Enrique's Paris St-Germain.
But this takes both time and tutelage.
City will look better with Rodri, who possesses an understanding of positioning, speed and risk that Anderson and future signings may take time to grasp.
After all, it took Rodri a few seasons to navigate the change in environment under Fernandinho's wing.
But should he go, Maresca has previously shown an impressive ability to recognise positions players could move into but haven't yet done: Stones into holding midfield, Caicedo into full-back, Marc Cucurella into attacking midfield... the list goes on.
Whether or not City further bolster their squad, Maresca will hope to have a greater number of pieces to place on his board - a departure from Guardiola's approach of maintaining a smaller squad.
That factor - and this holds true whether or not Rodri stays - should give City's new boss a greater chance of landing on a working formula next season.
Source: BBC
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