Man City must fix their transfer mistake if they are to fix their £75m midfield problem

Rodri interrupted the sport as he requested. “Absolutely, he will also rest on Wednesday,” Pep Guardiola said with a serious face. Chances are Carlo Ancelotti wasn’t fooled. After all, Manchester City are unbeaten in Rodri’s 66 matches. They ended a four-game losing streak within the Premier League without him by beating Luton 5-1 on Saturday.

If nothing else, they proved they can hit Luton without the person Guardiola calls one of the best midfielder on this planet: he was also an unused substitute in February’s 6-2 FA Cup win. This was inspired by last season’s defining double act featuring Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne. Saturday was different: a victory with the mark of something recent. Three of last summer’s 4 major signings – Mateo Kovacic, Jeremy Doku and Josko Gvardiol – scored; the fourth, Matheus Nunes, missed the goal only within the upright position. This was the primary time the 4 of them began together; for a small sample, this was a winning formula. Probably crazy considering they fired 19 shots between them.

So £200 million was well spent? A distinct interpretation will probably be possible once we receive the team sheets on Wednesday. Only Gvardiol will probably start. “He’s made a lot of progress,” Guardiola said, and he wasn’t just referring to the long-range right-footed shots which have netted the Croatian two goals in as many games. “Incredible talent,” added his manager. The world’s second most costly central defender is being reinvented as a goal-threat left-back.

Then there’s Doku – smart, great on his day, but his contributions are available in suits and starts. Guardiola prefers Jack Grealish’s ability to keep possession and City’s defense could deteriorate when Doku starts. However, this is just not the explanation why Rodri was indispensable and irreplaceable. And if the over-reliance on Rodri has been made worse by a scarcity of alternatives, the failure of a player signed to be his understudy within the under-used after which exiled Kalvin Phillips, the very fact is that City signed two central midfielders last summer. There is a likelihood that they will want to sign two more players in the summertime.

Nunes and Kovacic represent different issues. The Croatian performed brilliantly on Saturday, but it surely was a rarity. A match by which he performed brilliantly without Rodri. His best performances often got here from the Spaniard. Probably his worst performance got here at Arsenal when Rodri was suspended. He did little higher within the defeat to Wolves, even when his regular midfielder was suspended. He had a conversation with Pep before Luton. “We talked and said, ‘You can do it,’” his manager said. However, in a game where City had 74 percent possession and had 37 shots, he didn’t need to be a defensive midfielder.

Kovacic struggled against Real Madrid on the Bernabeu. He is the anti-Doku in a single respect – he is probably going to keep the ball, often chosen for the most important games. Yet one theory is that a person who has won 4 Champions Leagues without starting any of the finals is healthier as a team player; that the mistake was not to buy him, but to depend on him to replace Ilkay Gundogan. Which, despite a superb goal on Saturday, has two problems: he’s neither a scoring threat nor a player able to anchoring the midfield on his own.

However, purchasing Nunes could have simply been a mistake. Infamously called “one of the best players in the world” by Guardiola when he was at Sporting Lisbon – the Catalan has since retracted the decision – Nunes may very well be one among City’s worst signings lately. They won 14 of the 15 games he began, but it is a reflection of the weakness of their opponents.

City are probably stuck with Nunes. If an attacking midfielder joins in the summertime – perhaps overtaken by Lucas Paqueta or Jamal Musiala on last yr’s shopping list – it’s going to fairly be a consequence of the possible departure of Bernardo Silva along with his annual seek for a Mediterranean climate. or De Bruyne if Saudi Arabia calls. Either way, they would wish a top quality addition, a possible match-winner who is just not Nunes, who has scored one goal in 66 games for Wolves and City.

But whether someone leaves or not, the principal requirement is a more defensive presence, able to operate alongside Rodri or occasionally as a substitute of him, to make sure that he has been sidelined for 3,497 minutes again by early April next season. Bruno Guimaraes could also be each ideal and expensive, however the undeniable fact that Rodri earned £62.8m, making him a club record signing on the time of his purchase, shows how essential the important thing position is to Guardiola.

Last yr, City’s midfield revamp cost £75m and brought in players who must have been within the reserves, ok to thrive against Luton, possibly playing on the bench against Real Madrid. And while fatigue could have been the explanation for Rodri’s exceptionally poor performance on the Bernabeu, he will probably be back, probably too essential to be rested this season.