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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about Rodri after the midfielder's return in the Premier League draw at Sunderland
Pep Guardiola purred over Rodri's return after the Manchester City midfielder stepped up to steer his team to a point at Sunderland. City's star midfielder hasn't started since October after a hamstring issue complicated his comeback from an ACL injury and was only back in the squad for the first time in months for the Nottingham Forest game on Saturday.
With Nico Gonzalez unable to shake off an injury he picked up in the first half though, Rodri produced his longest contribution in a City shirt since the beginning of October. He instantly anchored the midfield and, with fellow substitute Jeremy Doku providing an attacking threat, helped City to get control of the game.
A winning goal did not come but Guardiola was especially pleased with the performance in the second half and put a lot of that down to the role that Rodri played in making the team better. As City look to come on strong and chase Arsenal down in the second half of the season, Guardiola will hope to get a lot more use out of his Ballon d'Or winner.
"He changed the game. He proved in 45 minutes that he is the best in his position," he said. "Football is about the players, with the build-up we struggled in the first half and with Rodri we struggled less. He broke the lines, we were more fluid, arrived better, we moved better and hopefully one year and a half without him we missed him a lot so hopefully he can stay because he makes us a better team."
Despite Guardiola being content, captain Bernardo Silva was less enthusiastic about the game. "Two different halves. In the first half we didn't play that well. We didn't control the counter as well as we should," he said.
"We attacked a bit too quick - we didn't move them to find spaces. Second half we had a lot more chances and today was one of those days we couldn't finish them. We are not happy because we wanted better than this."
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