MANCHESTER CITY
Manchester City midfielder Rodri complains about the number of games played last season
The Spaniard spoke about the huge number or games he played last season in which he and City won the treble.
Rodri, one of, if not the key piece to Manchester City’s historic success last season, a year in which they won the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League, complained about the lack of games played during the campaign. “I don’t remember exactly how many games I played”, he said, “but I had a talk with the club and the coach because it’s not healthy.”
“You can do it for a season, but when it’s two or three in a row, it can be worse for the team as your physical level can go down. So I have to be careful. We’ve already said it, it can’t always be like that.”
‘I need to take care of my body’
Rodri didn’t have much competition in his position last season due to the level Kalvin Phillips showed throughout the season, meaning Rodri was selected for games in every competition City featured in.
“The important thing for me is for them to know the situation and they know that over the next few seasons we have to be careful. Now I’m young, but maybe when I get to 30 or 31 I won’t be able to do those types of things [playing so much].”
“I need to take care of my body”, he continued, “because 60 games is not the best thing for a football. Also, the seasons are getting longer every year, we have to adapt to that as well.”
Rodri is an untouchable player in Pep’s squad
Luckily for Rodri, Manchester City have adapted and have brought in central midfielder, Mateo Kovacic, from Chelsea. The Croatian has arrived not as a Rodri substitute, but as a replacement for Ilkay Gündogan, who left for FC Barcelona. Rodri is still an untouchable player for Guardiola in his system and only a much-improved Kalvin Phillips could aim to displace him and reduce his insanely high number of minutes.
As well as his games played for Manchester City, Rodri is also a fundamental piece in the jigsaw of the Spanish National Team, where he has taken over as the controller in charge of guiding from the base of midfield. He can also work well for La Roja at centre-back, where he played under Luis Enrique. Spain won the Nations League with Rodri as their best player and the team will undoubtedly look to him when they play in the Euros next June.