Aymeric Laporte has revealed that Manchester City midfielder Rodri struggled throughout his first season at the club.
After spending five-and-a-half years at the Manchester club, the defender joined Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr during the previous summer transfer window.
Now though, the 29-year-old has shed some light on one of his former City teammates and what he was like in his early days at the club.
Laporte says Rodri was hopeless in early City days
Speaking in a recent interview with AS, Laporte had this to say about Rodri.
He said: “In my first year at Manchester City, he wasn’t there, but he was a totally different player when he arrived. He can say it himself.
“When he arrived, Rodri didn’t even know where to place himself and today he is the best in the world in that position.
“In addition, it has helped me a lot. We understand each other, it has helped me a lot with the automatisms of the game. We are connected.”
During their time together at the Manchester club, the duo featured in 102 matches across all competitions, winning numerous trophies in the process.
City signed Rodri back in the 2019 summer transfer window from Atletico Madrid in a deal worth £62m and have since gone on to see the midfielder make 232 appearances for the club, scoring 22 goals and providing 23 assists along the way.
Comparing the midfielder’s previous Premier League campaign to his debut season, the 27-year-old made more shots at goal (50 vs 24), progressive passes (260 vs 232), shot-creating actions (92 vs 75), recoveries (301 vs 228) and successful tackles (41 vs 30) last term than he did in his first season at the club, despite only featuring in one more game.
This highlights the areas where the Spain international has improved his game under the management of Pep Guardiola.
