Manchester City are into the semi-finals of the FA Cup after a convincing 2-0 win over Newcastle United – and there was a moment in the game from Rodri that really impressed Danny Murphy.
City joined Coventry City in the hat, after they had beaten Wolves 3-2 earlier in the day, with Chelsea taking on Leicester City today, and Liverpool and Manchester United also doing battle.
Bernardo Silva was on target twice for the hosts, scoring with two deflected efforts.
It was a pretty comfortable evening for Pep Guardiola‘s side, with Newcastle only really having a couple of threatening moments.
It was just a solid, professional display – which was summed up perfectly by Rodri at the end of the game…
Danny Murphy hails Rodri after brilliant tracking back for Manchester City against Newcastle
Rodri put in a typically dominant performance yesterday for City in the 2-0 win over Newcastle.
The Spaniard was partnered by Mateo Kovacic in midfield and together they completely bossed the game, having 310 touches between them.
Rodri had 161 and Kovacic had 149, making them far and away the most involved players – the player with the third-highest number of touches in the match was Bernardo Silva with 96.
Rodri completed a staggering 144/152 (95%) passes, with three of those being ‘key’.
Despite this level of domination, Rodri was still on hand to do his defensive duties, with Danny Murphy noticing something he did late on.
He wrote in his column for the Daily Mail: “That’s the hardest thing when you have already won so much for so long. To keep the machine chugging along.
“Just look at Rodri, the best holding midfielder in the world. In the last few minutes against Newcastle he spotted danger and bust a gut to sprint back and clear a cross at the near post. It’s a small detail but it shows his relentless desire to do the right thing.”
Rodri is incredible
These numbers from £63 million star Rodri are just amazing, and he posts them on a regular basis.
Against Newcastle, he completed and utterly dominated, and there can be no doubt that he is the most important player in the team.
We’ve seen City cope without Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, because there are other sources of creativity. But no one else can boss games and provide complete control in the way that Rodri does.
He is simply the best player in the world in his position, and his availability over these next two months is going to be absolutely paramount for City.
