Guardiola’s first answer to the Rodri conundrum let Newcastle in and left plenty to be desired
The first experiment Pep Guardiola conducted ahead of a Manchester City season without Rodri did not return particularly successful results at Newcastle.
Manchester City lack the ball-playing strength of Rodri more than the physicality and excellent reading of the game their midfield general brings. That much was clear against Newcastle.
Rodri is set to miss a large chunk of if not all the season with City confirming his absence with an ACL injury he picked up early on in last weekend’s tempestuous clash against Arsenal.
After City announced the 28-year-old would be indefinitely sidelined, the question on everyone’s lips heading into City’s game against Newcastle regarded the midfield Pep Guardiola would opt to go with.
Rodri is Guardiola’s trusted man, having proven a great success since swapping Madrid for Manchester in 2019. There’s no denying the fact that City possess no like-for-like replacement; few in the world set the tempo of games and add a steeliness to the midfield in quite the same way.
Manuel Akanji and Mateo Kovacic, Guardiola’s latest innovative deep midfield duo, granted the Spanish boss the balance and control he so dearly craves in the opening half of their 1-1 draw against Newcastle at St James’ Park, but the pair seemed outrun and outfought in a second half when they created a limited number of real opportunities.
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The game against the Magpies gave Guardiola no choice but to make tactical tweaks, but innovation is nothing new to the 53-year-old, a skill which his opposite number Eddie Howe praised him for post-match.
Although Rico Lewis has been a bright spark since coming into the side, the teenager also looked off the pace alongside Kovacic as they lost the midfield battle against Howe’s physical workhorses in Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton.
Lewis’ best football since his debut has arguably come as a right back, allowing him to invert and operate heavily in the final third, but the positions he takes up as a midfielder felt unnatural to him on Saturday. The Lewis midfield experiment gave flashback to Gareth Southgate’s misuse of Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold during the Euros for England, though Lewis’ case comes down to desperate measures.
Post-match however, Guardiola was full of praise for the 19-year-old. He said: “He’s a player we don’t have to talk much about because he’s so intelligent. Football is a movement game. Rico reads perfectly what you have to do.”
Akanji’s position fluctuated between centre-back and midfield, constantly leaving Kovacic exposed as Newcastle produced wave after wave in attack, pressing aggressively with their fans behind the team.
Anthony Gordon, leading the line in place of Alexander Isak, caused the Blues’ backline issues all afternoon, meaning Akanji was far more stretched than his manager would have liked. The bridge between all phases of the pitch seemed missing for City.
It’s clear as day how City are impacted by the absence of their No. 6, but Guardiola also has to sacrifice another attacking player due to the injury.
Both wingers Savinho and Jeremy Doku started on the bench when the duo could have caused real problems in a match that turned into an end-to-end affair after the interval. That is Guardiola’s worst nightmare but something he will have been wary of, and his selection of Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish showed as such; the pair often grant City control, though that wasn’t always the case against Newcastle.
Credit also must be given to Howe and Newcastle, being brave enough to press a team who the large majority of teams in the league sit off. They found joy in the gaps left in midfield, while Dan Burn and Fabian Schar stayed focused on their job of shutting out the league’s top scorer Erling Haaland.
Should Haaland have netted on Tyneside, he would have become just the second-ever Premier League striker to score in each of his six opening games; that record is still held by former City striker Sergio Aguero alone.
Many have tried, and failed miserably, to stop Haaland in recent weeks. Kudos to Newcastle’s defensive duo for proving the Norwegian striker really is, after all, human. Much like City without Rodri.
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