It took Pep Guardiola about 20 seconds to sign that he was tired of speaking about Manchester Metropolis’s absent midfielder Rodri.
He took his seat within the media convention room at St James’ Park lower than half an hour after his aspect’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle.
The primary query? Does that sport present how pivotal Rodri is to your staff?
Guardiola drew breath and replied: “We performed actually good with Kova [Mateo Kovacic], Bernardo [Silva] and Rico [Lewis].”
4 of the seven questions posed to Guardiola centred round Rodri in some type.
And that was after an identical line of questioning instantly after the televised early kick-off on Saturday, with Guardiola telling BBC Match of the Day that his midfield had been “magnificent”.
Ultimately, Guardiola immediately addressed the difficulty at hand.
“I do know you will ask me on a regular basis,” he mentioned. “We’re going to miss Rodri for his physicality and presence. However he isn’t there.
“I’d love Rodri, Oscar Bobb, Kevin [de Bruyne] and [Nathan] Ake to be right here. However it’s what it’s. Generally it occurs and we’ve got to adapt.”
So, with Metropolis to overlook Rodri for the remainder of the season as he recovers from cruciate knee ligament surgical procedure, how did they adapt of their first Premier League sport with out him?
Guardiola has already mentioned the reply won’t be easy.
At Newcastle, he went for Kovacic because the holding participant, with the vastly skilled Ilkay Gundogan and inexperienced Rico Lewis forward of him. On Tuesday within the Champions League in opposition to Slovan Bratislava, it could be John Stones or Manuel Akanji. Or Bernardo Silva would possibly drop deep, as he did for the ultimate 9 minutes after Lewis had been changed by Savinho.
Statistics clever, Kovacic accomplished 30 passes within the ultimate third of the pitch, greater than anybody else within the sport. Nevertheless, total, Metropolis’s passing accuracy was down at 87.5%, their lowest in a league sport since March.
Within the hundreds of phrases written and dozens of knowledge graphics produced this week concerning why Rodri is so necessary, a few of it stays unquantifiable.
The Spain worldwide brings a calmness in intense conditions; has an instinctive consciousness of house; and absorbs info after which delivers on it.
To that finish, an enormous quantity is being requested of Lewis, who is simply 19 and simply over 50 video games into his senior profession, despite the fact that he has already proven sufficient potential to earn two England caps.
At Newcastle, Lewis had a quiet sport, enjoying to the precise of Gundogan. However perhaps that could be a good factor. He must stroll earlier than he can run.
“With clever gamers, you do not have to speak an excessive amount of,” mentioned Guardiola. “Soccer is a motion sport and Rico reads completely what we’ve got to do.
“He performed exceptionally nicely. He’s actually good within the small areas. He’s younger and he’ll enhance.”
Lewis has an unconventional athletic background given his dad is a kickboxer. The teenager mentioned lately that he used some kickboxing coaching to get absolutely match through the build-up to pre-season and clearly the psychological and bodily resilience required to compete in a sport as fierce as that may simply switch into the soccer area.
Extra pertinently, Lewis additionally mentioned he sees himself as a quantity eight relatively than within the full-back function the place he emerged from Metropolis’s academy instantly after the 2022 World Cup, which ought to assist him turn out to be what Guardiola needs him to be, even when he could discover himself swapping positions frequently.
It’s truthful to imagine Guardiola will get irritated frequently if the absence of Rodri is used as a cause for something that does not go their method.
“We’ve suffered right here earlier than even with Rodri,” mentioned Guardiola. “On the free-kicks particularly with [Dan] Burn, [Fabian] Schar and Joelinton.”
Former Metropolis defender Joleon Lescott, analysing the sport for TNT, mentioned it was “too early” to say that Rodri’s absence was an element within the outcome and reminded everybody Newcastle are a superb aspect, unbeaten now in 11 house league video games.
Such are the ridiculously excessive requirements Metropolis have set for themselves, two Premier League video games and not using a win represents their worst run since final November, after they launched into a four-match winless streak.
The primary three of these had been attracts, all of which Rodri began.
It’s that actuality which underpins Newcastle boss Eddie Howe’s evaluation of Metropolis – and Guardiola.
“Pep is an innovator,” Howe mentioned. “He’s arguably the perfect ever and he has taken the English sport to a different stage.
“Rodri glues every thing collectively and is pivotal to what they do however I believe all of us make an excessive amount of of a staff lacking one participant.
“It is vitally tough to switch gamers as a result of they’re distinctive, however you need to – and considered one of our challenges was to attempt to predict their beginning line-up and system as a result of we knew they’d reshuffle and do one thing totally different.
“Ultimately, it was our greatest efficiency of the season.”