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Meet Rodri, Manchester City's record signing who shatters stereotypes: 'I'm not used to tackles... I steal the ball in another way'
At first glance, Rodrigo Hernández Cascante does not look like your usual Pep Guardiola player. That is precisely the reason why Manchester City made him their record and, so far, only signing of the summer.
At 6ft 2in, Rodri is not particularly tall, but the 23-year-old former Atletico Madrid man is good in the air for a defensive midfield player. He is also athletic and rangy, covering the ground in grass-gobbling strides, with the lean, muscular torso of a cage fighter.
Whatever the stereotypical Spanish midfielder is supposed to look like - small, tricky, fast and elusive - Rodri shatters it.
Where you would normally expect Guardiola to invest heavily in skilful, attacking players - the scorers and creators of goals, the crowd-pleasing players with the skill to unpick locked defences - Rodri has been signed to pick pockets instead, to steal the ball and relieve the opposition of valuable possession inside City’s half.
He is a player, as technically sound as he is, who will bring more solidity to the side, a long-term successor to the increasingly fragile Fernandinho.
They may have won the domestic treble last term, another fantastic return for Guardiola, but when the Brazilian was injured, City’s vulnerability rose. Rodri, who has a degree in business studies and economics, was signed as an extra insurance policy.
“I think he [Guardiola] has lots of talented players, but maybe one of the things the team can get is more physical” said Rodri, speaking on City’s pre-season tour which headed from Shanghai to Hong Kong over the weekend.
“We have lots of players that are great or small. You never know if it's good or bad but having a mix of players is always good.
“Football is changing. It's getting more physical, of course in the Premier League. It's good for me to have that physique in the position I play.
“You don't win only playing good [sic], you need more things and that's why teams are changing their philosophy. I noticed years ago that I had to become both a defensive and attacking player if I wanted to be good enough to be in Manchester.”
Rodri only returned to Atletico Madrid, the club when he started his career as a boy, 12 months ago from Villarreal. It took £20 million, to bring him home, but City activated his £62.5m release clause more than a month ago to bring him over to England, with the idea he could learn from, and eventually replace, Fernandinho.
“I like to look to players like me and I always consider he [Fernandinho] has been in the top five or six midfielders,” explained Rodri, in fluent English. “You don't stay six years at Manchester City, always playing if you're not a good player. He gave the team what no-one gave - the strength, the power to steal balls - and that's important.
“But I'm not used to tackles. I don't know, it's on your own the way you learn. I steal the ball in another way. I see other players always go down or tackle but I'm very big. If I go to ground, I waste a lot of time before I can go again so I have another way to steal balls.”
City already have a strong core of Spanish players and while winning the Champions League remains a touchy subject with Guardiola, Rodri knows why he has signed for them and it is not merely to win a third successive Premier League title.
“Yeah, of course [we need to try and win the Champions League],” he added. “When you arrive at this level there are only five or six teams that compete with you at such a top level. It's our goal of course, winning trophies in every competition we play in. But there are many factors to consider.
“You have to do a good season and be in the exact place in the exact moment. Let's see how the season develops but I look at people and they are great players that have won many things and want to win the Champions League.
“This will be David Silva’s last season at City, and he is a great guy I met with the Spain national team. I think he's been one of the greatest Spanish players in the last 10 years.
“I will try to learn as much as possible because he's one of these players with high quality and he is helping me a lot here in Manchester. A dream for me would be we have success together and we win the Champions League.”
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