00:00How do Man City replace Rodri? To paraphrase Moneyball, you can't replace Rodri. Now,
00:05what you might be able to do is recreate him. Recreate him in the aggregate. Let's start with
00:09Elliot Anderson. His pressing and ball carrying may make him more of a Bernardo Silva replacement
00:13than Rodri, but he can certainly emulate the Spanish captain too, namely defensively. He
00:18ranked in the top 5% of defence midfielders in the Premier League last season when it came to
00:22defensive metrics. Tick. Next up, Ayub Bouadi. The 18-year-old is physically imposing, like Rodri.
00:28He prefers to sit deeper than Anderson and absolutely excels as a classic ball-playing
00:32midfielder. His short passing is excellent, he can break lines with ease and is a proper
00:36possession number 6. That's another tick. But the hardest thing to replace? Rodri's intangibles,
00:42his winning mentality, his clutch gene, his leadership. How do you replace that? City have
00:47lost John Stones, Bernardo Silva, Pep Guardiola and Rodri this summer. That's a lot of experience
00:52gone. Maybe that explains their push for Enzo Fernandes. Stylistically, I don't see Enzo as
00:57City, really, but he's a World Cup winner and finalist, has scored multiple big goals for
01:01club and country, and is undoubtedly a warrior. Is that worth the £120 million quoted? Or
01:07should City invest their stocks in the 18-year-old Bouadi and the 23-year-old Anderson and accept
01:12that those characteristics can only come with time? Rodri will, of course, be a massive miss.
01:17A transitional season for City may be beckoning.
01:19A transitional season for City may be beckoning.
