Rodri’s injury meant great alchemist Pep Guardiola needed to mix a new formula, writes MATT BARLOW – but so many of his favourite potions are losing their magic

The perfect balance of the trio in Aston Villa’s midfield screamed and pointed to the alchemy that Pep Guardiola had lost.

Youri Tielemans, Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara move in harmony and think with one mind. Picking passes, clocking kilometers and averting dangers while Guardiola was desperately tinkering.

Manchester City’s balance has disappeared with Rodri, and it took me back to a moment in the company of Mauricio Pochettino, back when he was manager of Tottenham.

Pochettino performed a mime to embellish his broken English, pouring drinks from small bottles to find just the right formula as he tried to convey why it was never as simple as replacing one player with another.

Losing Rodri means losing the best player in the world. For City, more than the man anchoring the midfield. He reads the game, moves the ball, sets the pace, drives the waves. He contributes to important goals. All while protecting them from the counterattack.

For Guardiola, he was the tactical cornerstone and replacing him always meant mixing a new formula, something made even more difficult by the fact that some of his favorite drinks are losing their magic.

Rodri’s injury has been a major problem for City and a key factor behind their recent problems

Guardiola’s side have had incredible success, but he must find a solution to City’s problems

Kevin de Bruyne’s brilliance can no longer be relied on. Kyle Walker is a fading force. Bernardo Silva is subdued. Ilkay Gundogan is one meter behind Premier League level since returning from Barcelona.

There are injuries, crucial for Ederson, another vital part of City’s mix, and others that sap the energy and confidence of the players available.

Welcome to our hell, the league’s managers may think, but above all is the fact that Guardiola and most of his players are relentlessly pursuing one trophy after another.

Manchester City won the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia last year.

They could be forgiven if one or two unknowingly took a moment to catch their breath after completing the set and clinching an historic fourth Premier League title in a row.

The problem with taking a breath is that it can be difficult to regain the same momentum and the same extreme levels of everything: quality, desire, coherence as it was. And all under the pressure of the elite competition.

There was a reason why four in a row is unique, and three so rare. Think back to Chelsea’s various meltdowns in defense of their last four titles. Antonio Conte was furious to discover that some footballers did not have the same unquenchable desire to continue as that of Marcelo Lippi’s Juventus.

The true genius of Guardiola’s work at City is that he is making an imperceptible recovery and maintaining the collective drive to bring home more and more trophies. To put them on a shelf and go back outside, regardless of the weather.

Youri Tielemans, Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara caused problems for City on Saturday

Phil Foden has been stifled of late, although he did score his first league goal of the season

There are other problems for City: Kevin De Bruyne’s brilliance can no longer be relied on

Additionally, 34-year-old Kyle Walker has shown some signs of decline this season

He appears to have sold and released players with this in mind. As if he recognizes the attitude and dedication required to make the technical genius work in this scenario.

An adage from the management world is: change the players before they change you.

Yet mistakes are inevitable, even with the backing of a sovereign wealth fund. Rodri was ready to replace Fernandinho when required, but Kalvin Phillips was loaned out to Ipswich when required.

Phillips will be discarded, as will Romeo Lavia and Douglas Luiz, former City midfielders who might have come in handy, but what’s the point in lamenting that.

It’s like using this moment of crisis to complain about the booming post-City of Cole Palmer, Jamie Gittens and Morgan Rogers, while Phil Foden is suppressed like the Foden of England.

Clubs cannot, like City, harvest teenage talent from around the world and expect to keep them all, play them all and develop them all to the level required to maintain a place in one of the best teams in the world.

Besides, why not trust Guardiola’s judgment when he selects the people he wants to let go?

Foden was voted Footballer of the Year in May. His glittering career is an absolute triumph, even if he is among those now suffering as City’s balance has been lost in the way Arsenal’s was lost without Martin Odegaard and Liverpool’s disappeared amid a midfield injury crisis in 2022/2023, causing problems to flow to other parts of the team. .

All eyes are on Guardiola as this is entirely his creation. Perhaps more than anyone else, he is behind the rise of the cult of the coach and so it is up to him to fix it.

He goes back to the alchemy set, a drop of potion from this bottle and a drop from that, and buys more bottles until he comes across another golden formula. Others need to make the most of the time it takes.

FIVE THINGS I LEARNED

1. Promotion through the play-offs is a questionable career move. Your team will by definition be the weakest team in the division, with three weeks less time than any other team to make signings. However, the scrutiny is no less fierce, as Russell Martin and Des Buckingham have discovered. Buckingham led Oxford back to the second tier in May after a 25-year absence and was sacked on the same day as Martin at Southampton and Gary O’Neil at Wolves, another bleak day for aspiring young British bosses.

2. Another year has passed without a deal being struck for the good of football, but Premier League supremo Richard Masters and EFL chief executive Trevor Birch were spotted sitting next to each other at Brentford and Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Russell Martin was sacked as Southampton boss last weekend, despite the club’s promotion through the play-offs in May

3. Dan Friedkin has given Everton fans reason for hope as he pushed the number of majority American-owned Premier League clubs into double figures. With Southampton, Leicester and Wolves all struggling, American Leeds and Burnley doing well and Sheffield United close to an American takeover, there is more to come.

4. Swindon Town won for the second time in three games, beating Grimsby in the celebrations for Ian Holloway’s 1000th game as manager, but the occasion was most notable as hundreds of fans donned orange hats and carried orange banners to the County Ground in protest from the group The Spirit of ’69 who want to get rid of Clem Morfuni, owner since July 2021 who has led the club in a fight for their EFL status.

5. Rotherham legend John Breckin has received the first Jeff Astle Award for services to brain health in recognition of the brilliant Millers Memory Club, founded three years ago as a social center for former teammates with dementia. The idea spread organically across the region to Sheffield United and Chesterfield. And this season Notts County, Sheffield Wednesday and Mansfield have followed suit.