Sooner or later Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante – Rodri to us – will return.
He has not played in Manchester City colours in the Premier League since the final game of last season, when Rodri scored City’s third goal against West Ham to seal a fourth consecutive title. Unprecedented, as everyone said.
What people also said was how good Rodri was and had been for the entire season. Then we added that the four before it weren’t bad either. And we were correct.
His FA Cup final appearance, and City’s, may have been as anomalous as Manchester United’s but Rodri then departed for Euro 2024 where he was a standout player even in a Spain team captivating us with Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams.
Kevin Kilbane: Hallgrímsson taking the first steps to making Ireland competitive again
Ange Postecoglou says some of the criticism he receives is offensive and disrespectful
Pep Guardiola rules out dropping Erling Haaland as Manchester City struggle for form
Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’
Once again, Rodri had a curious final and did not reappear after the half-time interval, but he had done enough already to be named Player of the Tournament. Via a diversion into the political status of Gibraltar, he then went on holiday, missed City’s summer tour to the United States and was not seen on a pitch until last Sunday when he played for an hour of Spain’s 4-1 win in Switzerland.
And now he is back in Manchester, photographed in training on Wednesday. It is a sight to behold for City fans and Pep Guardiola whereas for the opposition in the Premier League, it’s look-away-now time.
Rodri returns with City unbeaten, top of the league and about to play four games in three competitions in 11 days. All four are at home.
The first of those is Brentford this afternoon; the second, next Wednesday, is Internazionale in the Champions League – against whom Rodri scored the winner in the 2023 final; the third, next Sunday, is the visit of wounded Arsenal; then it’s Watford in the League Cup.
Bar the last of that quartet, Rodri’s return is likely to be consequential. Even in a squad containing Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Ederson and the rest, Rodri has turned himself into something else. Is he the best player in Europe? Quite possibly.
Rodri’s physique – 6ft 3in, 13st – means it is difficult for him to be overlooked. Yet it feels as if our collective appreciation of him has bloomed relatively late. Last year was the first time he was even included in the Ballon d’Or shortlist of 30 players – Rodri came fifth with two City colleagues, Haaland and De Bruyne, ahead of him. This year (and the award is announced next month) Rodri is again nominated. He will be ranked higher, surely.
It would be confirmation of his individual development as well as demonstrating expanding external understanding of what the 28 year-old from Madrid brings to a game which is, in a two-word summation, central intelligence.
Rodri had just celebrated his 23rd birthday when he signed for City in 2019. It followed a single season with Atletico Madrid, who came second in La Liga. Before that he was with Villareal, combining playing with studying accountancy at university.
As he revealed in a great piece on The Players’ Tribune, Rodri lived in shared student accommodation. It took his flatmates a while to recognise the lad who jumped on his bicycle to go training each morning. It was when they saw him on TV against Barcelona.
At City Rodri made his debut in the Community Shield in a side still containing David Silva and Leroy Sane. Sergio Aguero was on the bench.
Rodri therefore feels both a bridge between eras and a new keystone in Guardiola’s evolving teams. Fortunately for him, City and Spain, he has the strength to bear this weight.
Physically reliable as well as imposing, Rodri is hardly ever a substitute and he is substituted equally rarely, usually when City are two or three goals ahead. He played 34 times for Atletico in that La Liga season; in his first Premier League season it was 35, then 34, 33, 36 and 34.
Then there are the cup-ties and Champions League games, the travel, the international call-ups. In Bill Shankly terminology, Rodri’s a colossus.
He seems to take it all in that controlled gallop of a stride. It’s a presence to build a side around and as David Silva and Fernandinho and Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling and others (Kalvin Phillips) have departed, Rodri has remained with De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva in a midfield that acquired, lost and reacquired Ilkay Gundogan.
In such company Rodri observed, held his own, then eased himself ahead. His passing, his positioning, are exceptional. He is always willing to receive the ball, however tight his situation. He has become a leader in City’s gifted network of moving connections, a player all of Europe would like to have. He is completely immersed in matches; he had the most touches and passes by far of any Premier League player last season. He spoke of Guardiola’s obsession with space – seeing it, filling it, vacating it.
The leadership was seen in an episode of the All Or Nothing series covering season 2022-23 when Rodri warned his team-mates at half-time about overconfidence when leading at Nottingham Forest. Forest duly equalised late in the second half and Rodri is shown expressing his dissatisfaction in the dressingroom – the edited version.
He feels educated by such experiences – “In the bad moments, when you truly suffer, that’s when you really grow”.
This was a reference to the 2021 Champions League final when City lost to Chelsea. As he has acknowledged, he has grown since.
It is natural development, maturity, increased awareness and self-awareness as he ages into his prime. It is also the influence of Guardiola. As Rodri said, before moving to City he spoke to Sergio Busquets, who told him: “Pep? He is going to make you a better player. But he is never, never, never going to stop pushing you. You will never be finished.”
Rodri is not finished, as in complete. But he is pretty close to it. Even Guardiola, who had Busquets, must think there is a comparison between the two – and few compliments are as big. De Bruyne has offered another, describing Rodri as “a constant, the main guy in the way that we play football”.
What next? Well, these forthcoming matches, a fifth consecutive title (pending those 115 charges), a Champions League final in Munich?
And the inevitable encroachment of Real Madrid. That has begun and if Real succeed, buena suerte to the rest of Spain and Europe.
First Brentford. City have not lost a league game with Rodri in the team since February of last year. And he has returned.
