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Manchester City didn’t sign a replacement in the summer in a key position and have struggled as a result – but now they may have found a perfect alternative for around £50m.
City fans and anyone else with an opinion have been calling for the Blues to sign a Rodri replacement (or back-up) and a defensive midfielder is high up the January shopping list. It’s a tough search, though, as whoever is signed will need to get the Blues out of a hole this season then drop to the bench next season as a reward when Rodri is back.
As Pep Guardiola has always said, maybe the best way to replace Rodri is to not replace him at all. With everyone fit, Mateo Kovacic can patrol the holding areas with support from Rico Lewis, John Stones and Manu Akanji. The problem has been keeping those inverted players fit, with Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva having to drop back and help instead.
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In turn, that takes away some much-needed links to Erling Haaland, forcing City to go wide to find the striker, with mixed results from their wingers and a Haaland who was growing increasingly isolated during the bad run.
Ederson of Atalanta is a name linked to solve the defensive midfield issue, although there are complications with signing him in January – not least because Atalanta have two key Champions League fixtures left and he is integral to their chances of making the knockout stages (and the lucrative prize money that comes with it).
Then there is Omar Marmoush, a prolific striker for Eintracht Frankfurt who isn’t a Rodri replacement at all. Frankfurt are reluctant to sell in January, but a figure of around £50m has been mooted and there is excitement in his native Egypt over a big money move to City this month.
He would add another striking option to help ease the pressure on Haaland, a bit like Julian Alvarez did, and he can also operate from the left. If he filled the Alvarez role as a second striker, it could help someone like Gundogan or Bernardo get the ball to Haaland quicker rather than trying to do it all themselves and risk the transitions that City have struggled with all season.
Alvarez left in the summer because he wanted to be the main man, earning City a huge profit in the process. City haven’t replaced his goals, but Marmoush’s 18 in 24 games this season would certainly do that, not to mention his 12 assists. (Haaland, for context, has 21 goals and one assist).
City decided they didn’t need to reinvest the Alvarez money straight away. Savinho had just arrived, while James McAtee and Oscar Bobb were options to support Haaland. But McAtee has been underused and Bobb got injured on the eve of the season, prompting Haaland to play in almost every game and carry the burden of City’s awful run.
Rodri is ‘irreplaceable’ as Guardiola correctly says. So the key is probably to not try and replace him, instead focussing on other areas. If Marmoush could bring even a portion of his goals to City, taking pressure off Haaland and improving the Norwegian’s output, it might buy them time to get to the Rodri solution they need.