Manchester City fans feared that the influential midfielder’s absence at Aston Villa would make their evening more difficult, and they were proved right.

John Stones came back in but looked like a player who hadn’t played football in weeks, while Rico Lewis had one of his more difficult games alongside him. Villa exploited City’s lack of a coherent midfield structure, and earned a fully-deserved three points. It was an evening that underlined Rodri’s importance to City, but also a string of decisions in the transfer market that are yet to prove themselves.

Pep Guardiola insisted the result was not down to Rodri’s absence or any other missing player, but he will have been concerned that once again, there is no obvious alternative at the base of midfield to the Spaniard.

Kalvin Phillips was tested at Newcastle and hasn’t started the four games Rodri has missed City. Rico Lewis has partnered Mateo Kovacic and John Stones, while Matheus Nunes was hooked at half-time at Wolves and is another who has not graced a starting XI in the meantime.

Kovacic and Nunes were overlooked at Villa in place of Stones and Manu Akanji taking it in turns to push into midfield, with Lewis floating around ineffectually and Julian Alvarez dropping back sometimes. Both summer signings came off the bench midway through the second half – almost £80m of talent from the summer’s spending – but failed to stop the waves of Villa attack.

When City inevitably fell behind, neither Kovacic nor Nunes were able to get the ball forward to find a leveller. Nunes’ inexplicable backheel in the box summed up his struggles for consistent minutes. Kovacic looks better next to Rodri, rather than instead of him.

Add the forgotten Phillips and City have spent £120m on three midfielders to offer support to Rodri over the last two summers, aware that he needs to rest from time to time. Last season, Rodri had to power through, and there are signs that is catching up with him this term as he is yet to reach the same levels of world-class consistency.

Normally, that should be no problem, but the three signings designed to help exactly this scenario have not yet managed to offer Guardiola a genuine alternative. City are reliant on their defenders to help support the base of midfield, and a teenage fullback who should be allowed to have off-days.

What they would give for Ilkay Gundogan back in the midfield, capable of dropping back when needed. He was never as good as Rodri as the number six, but he was completely in tune with Guardiola’s demands of his midfielders. But with his contract winding down, City didn’t offer him the assurances he wanted, and Barcelona did.

Gundogan ended the season as an important goalscorer, raising questions of why they didn’t offer a two-year deal until it was too late. They could not have seen Kevin De Bruyne’s long-term injury coming, but Gundogan would have been valuable at both six and eight this season – especially during this winless run.

Rodri will walk back into the side at Luton this week and going forward to the Club World Cup. With every defeat when he doesn’t play, he is becoming more and more important to City, and is underlining his credentials as an alternative to Erling Haaland for City fans’ Footballer of the Year.

 

Haaland should win that vote – for the national Footballer of the Year award and the City-specific award – but Rodri has arguably had a more important role in the Blues’ fortunes, both when he has played and when he hasn’t. If City have spent £120m and still can’t afford for him not to be on the pitch, it is a situation that underlines his undroppable nature to Guardiola.

It could be enough to mount a late challenge to be the Footballer of the Year.