Manchester City need to start ALL of their centre-backs to cope without Rodri says Pep Guardiola | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has suggested that his preferred solution to the absence of Rodri would be to start all of his centre-backs across the defence and midfield.

The Spain international is ruled out for the entirety of the campaign having sustained a double knee injury during the 2-2 draw with Arsenal earlier this season, requiring surgery in Spain and a lengthy rehabilitation period.

Manager Guardiola has tapped into a number of trialled solutions since Rodri was ruled out until the summer of 2025, including Mateo Kovacic in the lone defensive midfield role, as well as Rico Lewis alongside Manuel Akanji stepping out of defence.

However, none of the trialled solutions have offered too much success, leaving Guardiola scrambling for other versions of his defensive set-up, whilst a whole host of other names across the squad battle fitness and injury issues themselves.

Speaking ahead of Manchester City’s meeting with Feyenoord in the UEFA Champions League, Pep Guardiola revealed his desire to start all four of his central defensive options in his rearguard and in midfield in order to cope with the absence of Rodri.

“Our four central defenders are not there, and are not still not ready, ready, ready because they were injured. And our main player for these transitions, that player is Rodri, is not there. And we can’t survive,” said Guardiola.

“Because with four central defenders, I’d put Manu [Akanji] and John [Stones] as holding midfielders, right? With Ruben [Dias] behind, with Nathan [Ake], with Josko [Gvardiol] – we will be stable. We would be strong in the box. But we don’t have it,” he continued.

As such, the Catalan coach has been forced to utilise Ilkay Gundogan in the deep-lying midfield role for the large majority of recent matches, and even more so given the new injury sustained by Mateo Kovacic on international duty with Croatia.

“We have to play with [Ilkay] Gundo, who is an attacking midfielder, our best guy to arrive into the box. But he has to play holding midfielder, because the other holding midfielder is injured, it’s [Mateo] Kova, like he’s another player who can do it,” Guardiola said.

He explained, “And he has to be alongside Rico [Lewis] to have a lot of passes, a lot of control to do it. And when that happens, you have to adapt.”

Manchester City will need to find a solution and fast as a number of challenging fixtures come for the club across competitions, starting with Feyenoord on Tuesday night and followed by Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.