Speaking on The Overlap podcast, Manchester United star Gary Neville expressed his keen interest and anticipation in Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola's strategy to deal with the absence of Rodney. Neville is well aware of Guardiola's exceptional talent for tactical adjustments and is confident that he will not deal with the absence of Rodri, a key player, in a conventional manner.
Neville began by recalling Guardiola's classic case in Barcelona, where Mascherano, originally known as a defensive midfielder, switched to center back and achieved remarkable success. This move demonstrated Guardiola's coaching style of daring to break the mold and innovate, and signaled that he may take similar bold decisions in Rodriguez's absence.
Neville spoke highly of Rodri's importance in the City team, suggesting that he could be second only to Harland as an indispensable man. Neville pointed out that although stars such as De Bruyne are equally talented, Rodri's role in the team's overall tactical system is hard to replace. In particular, he emphasized that Rodri's presence as a "talisman" has a profound effect on the team's stability and competitiveness.
Speaking about how City will make up for Rodney's absence, Neville put forward an interesting hypothesis: if Arsenal had the opportunity to weaken City by removing a player from their squad, they would probably target Harland first; and after Harland, Rodney would undoubtedly be next in line to be targeted. This assumption further emphasizes the centrality of Rodri in the team.
Finally, Neville expressed great concern about Guardiola's next move. He believes that Guardiola has already begun the work of redeploying and adapting the team's tactics and will not be satisfied with traditional solutions. Neville believes that Guardiola will respond to Rodri's absence in an unusual way, bringing unexpected surprises and changes to the fans.
