Why does Rodri score so often for Manchester City – and how do you stop him?

When Manchester City signed Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante from Atletico Madrid in July 2019, it looked like they had secured the complete controlling midfielder.

Rodri, as he is known in the game, offered composure under pressure, clever forward passing, mobility, ball-winning ability and also aerial strength. It was hard to think of anything he lacked in the defensive midfield role.

Yet he has become even more of an all-rounder, as City probably didn’t expect such a big contribution in attack. Last season, Rodri racked up 17 goals and assists in the Premier League. That works out at 0.52 per game, equal to Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard and Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes — players regarded as two of the league’s best No. 10s.

In total, Rodri has now scored 26 goals for City, with only one coming from the penalty spot. It is hard to think of a defensive midfielder who provides his team with a greater goal output.

How does he do that then?

Threat at fixed times

Firstly, Rodri is a threat in the air in set-piece situations, partly because he is 1.91 metres tall and partly because he makes very clever runs.

In fact, three of his standard goals for City have been strikingly similar – headers from the left corner, with Rodri making some pretty extreme runs to the near post, into a position where it feels too complicated to flick the ball towards goal (see the three orange dots at the corner of the six-yard box in the image above). But somehow he manages to tap the ball home.

Here’s one of three, against Aston Villa in 2022-23, where he runs into a position where all the Villa defenders are in the zone to collect a free header from well past the near post.

His debut international goal, in Spain’s 6-0 win over Germany in 2020, was a similar header.

Different finishes

For a player who isn’t primarily concerned with scoring goals, it’s remarkable how effectively Rodri strikes the ball in a variety of ways. There are a few absolute lightning bolts in his tally, such as this dipping strike against Watford in 2021-22.

But he also has a knack for finishing the ball in the corners in a controlled and calm manner, both with straight sideways passes and curling plays. An example is his magnificent goal in last season’s Champions League against Red Star Belgrade, which came after a forward dribble from a deeper position.

He appears, simply put, to be a very good finisher. His 26 career league goals have come from expected goals (xG) of 18.6, according to fbref.com, suggesting he has outperformed the quality of his scoring chances.

Deep defenses and 5-4-1’s

City typically have the majority of possession in games, which often causes opponents to position themselves far back, allowing Rodri to play forward.

But an underrated factor is that opposition managers often switch to a five-man defence against City, which generally means a 5-4-1, and therefore only two central midfielders. So unless their striker drops back to Rodri’s goal line, he often gets away scot-free.

Here’s a goal from last season against West Ham United, who effectively have a surplus at the back, meaning they’re a bit light in midfield. West Ham’s midfield quartet aren’t particularly well organised in this situation either. It means Rodri is free, 25 yards out, and begging for a pass.

For example, if West Ham had played in a 4-4-1-1 system instead of a 4-5-1 system, one of their players might have played in the number 10 position and thus been better able to contain Rodri.

Defenders step forward

Perhaps the question “How does Rodri score so many goals when he is a controlling midfielder?” is not the right one, because he has the advantage of playing in a team where a defender constantly pushes into midfield, which allows him to move more forward.

Here’s an example from a home Champions League match against Bayern Munich in 2022-23. Would Rodri take up this position between the lines if John Stones had retained a position in the centre of City’s defence, rather than moving into midfield? Definitely not.

Of course, that was only a small part of the story: what followed was a magnificent curling finish, and one with his weaker left leg.

Midfielders create space

Stones’ positioning explains Why Rodri can move forward. But how does he actually find so much space?

In a way, it’s part of the same equation. Because Stones — or whoever occupies that half-back position — is pushed into midfield, City’s No 8s are freed up to become extra attackers. That in turn creates space for Rodri. Here are two examples, both of which lead to crucial goals.

The first came when City staged a memorable comeback 3-2 home win over Aston Villa on the final matchday of the 2021-22 season to secure another league title.

As this move unfolds, there are three City midfielders — Rodri, Phil Foden and Ilkay Gundogan. Rodri is free and the other two are being watched by Villa’s two central midfielders, Douglas Luiz and Marvelous Nakamba, who are in decent positions in front of their defence.

But seconds later, Gundogan and Foden have both made a run behind the opposition. That has drawn Nakamba and Douglas Luiz deep, effectively turning them into extra central defenders. As a result, Rodri is left unmarked on the edge of the D and has the space to calmly flick the ball in with his feet for City’s equaliser.

Next up is a similar situation for an even more important goal a year later — the winner against Inter Milan to secure City’s first ever Champions League title. It’s the same starting position as Villa’s. Again, the three City players highlighted are the three in central midfield — Rodri, Foden and Bernardo Silva. Again, two of the opposition’s central midfielders, Marcelo Brozovic and Hakan Calhanoglu, are highlighted in good positions.

But if we jump forward a few seconds and look at the position of the players at the moment of the key pass, Bernardo has moved to the byline to play the cutback and Foden is looking to poach from inside the six-yard box. Their runs mean that Brozovic and Calhanoglu have sprinted back and are in line with Inter’s centre-backs.

The ball falls to Rodri, who is not only free but also has a clear path to goal, with no opposing defenders in a position to close the angle.

His ability to shoot with both feet

This is something that Rodri has clearly developed over the last few years. He’s shooting more overall, but the increase has been particularly stark when it comes to shooting with his left foot. He had 21 shots with that leg in his first six senior seasons combined as a regular for Villarreal, Atletico and City. Then he had 19 in 2023-24 alone.

In other words, only one of Rodri’s first 15 goals for City came with his left foot – a sloppy close-range winner at Arsenal on New Year’s Day 2022 – but four of his 11 goals since then have come with that leg.

Technically, the best example of his left-footed finishing is the aforementioned curling shot against Bayern. But a more telling strike was his only goal at this summer’s European Championship.

With Spain 1-0 down to Georgia in the round of 16 and beginning to feel the pressure heading into half-time, Rodri collected a sideways pass on the edge of the box, wrong-footed opposition midfielder Otar Kiteishvili by looking back to his left leg, and then fired into the bottom corner. The shooting range was opened up when he surprised Kiteishvili by looking back to his weaker side.

How do you stop him?

City’s opponents this weekend, Arsenal, know all about Rodri’s goalscoring prowess – he’s scored home and away against them in 2021-22. As the examples above show, he’s very difficult to stop because Rodri’s team-mates create space for him so effectively and because he has such a variety of shots – especially with so many other goalscorers in the City squad to worry about.

But the most important thing is to just keep the space around him filled.

Rodri celebrates his late winning goal at Arsenal in 2022 (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

Too many opponents see their lines fall apart under the runs of City’s number 8s, or leave themselves short-handed in midfield by shoring up the defence with an extra centre-back. That’s something Arsenal are unlikely to do on Sunday.

There seems a good chance that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will continue with the 4-4-2 formation he used against Tottenham Hotspur in last weekend’s North London derby victory. With the two forwards moving deep to keep the team compact, it effectively becomes almost a 4-4-2-0 formation.

That alone is no guarantee that Rodri will stay quiet, but there is a reason he has been completely unproductive for Villarreal or Atletico, scoring just once in 57 games for Spain from open play, but has been relatively productive for City. Yes, his technical quality is excellent, but it is more about how City’s system is unique in opening up space for their holding midfielder to shoot when he is unmarked.

Arsenal and other future opponents must deny him that freedom.

(Top photo: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)