No Rodri, no problem – why Kovacic was the ‘picture of experience’ for Man City v Chelsea

Kovacic had Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne around him against Chelsea, and that would obviously help everyone because they are two such great footballers.

But he was expected to play deeper and be more disciplined than usual, and the way he did that was decisive for me, especially as a former midfielder myself.

I know how difficult it is sometimes to change your role a little bit, because when you are an attacking player you have to think a lot more about what you do during the game.

Your instincts always say to go for a little run or work your way forward. Ironically, that’s what Kovacic did for his goal – but maybe the space was just there and he thought ‘go for it’.

Overall he has settled in well and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him there again the next time Rodri is away.

If City decide they want to sign an understudy to Rodri, he has to be better than Kovacic to begin with. Otherwise what’s the point?

Then you would do well to find someone who is better than Kovacic and who is also happy to sit on the bench and wait for Rodri to miss a game every 30 minutes because he seems to get injured so rarely.

So unless they find a super young talent somewhere – and they already have a few such players – I don’t think City will sign a holding midfielder before the transfer window closes on August 30.

For example, they already have Rico Lewis, who replaced Kyle Walker on Sunday and is a huge talent.

Lewis looked completely at ease when he moved into midfield against Chelsea and is good enough on the ball to fulfil that role as a defender.

He is tenacious and while he lacks Rodri’s physical presence, that won’t matter against most teams City face when they have the ball most of the time.

So I think it’s more likely that they bring in a younger player who can maybe replace Haaland, a bit like when they found Julian Alvarez, they found a diamond there and then sold him for over £80m.