It’s really sad for Rodri that he’s done his ACL. It’s similar to Van Dijk, in that he is, by some margin, the best in the world in his position.
I think the biggest issue is that there is a difference between doing you ACL as a defender and a midfielder. Rodri is going to be impacted by that loss of mobility as a midfielder more than Van Dijk was. He is going to be into his thirties before he has properly recovered, and he won’t be the same player again.
Aside from that, City are long overdue a bad injury. They’ve had a really good run.
There’s no debate to be had. That run of games up to our first loss was unprecedented and hasn’t been repeated since. Even the game we drew we were fucking cheated by Atkinson.
Why any Liverpool fan would even consider throwing shade on that team’s achievements is beyond me.
I agree, it’s different. And they have already looked a bit shaky at times this season, so losing their midfield anchor will hurt them if teams dare to have a go at them.
I’m not throwing shade on that performance. I’m pointing out that firstly, if you look at the course of a whole season, City’s financially doped-up team managed 100 points and then 98 points. Even though we had an incredible performance that season, it’s likely that at full strength, they would only have been a couple of points/results behind us.
And let’s not forget that while it was an incredible run results-wise (and really you should be pointing out the fact that we had the highest points over a 38 game run, 110 out of 114), we had some bad performances that we still managed to salvage by getting the goals.
I don’t think it’s taking away anything from our performances that I point out that there is a fair point to be made that with a full team, they might have been able to reasonably keep close to us. In fact, I’d say it’s a compliment to us that even with the full strength of their cheating (£1b on full-backs?) we would still edge them out with their full squad.
And while we are at it, they’ll not have one more injury over the season. They will win the quadruple, beat the points record over a season and will be cleared of all wrongdoing regarding the 130 charges. Isn’ it?
City could suffer 10 injuries but if they find a way to keep winning games some people would bend over to explain how city never have to deal with injuries - last season they lost KdB for half a season and had Stones unavailable more often than Matip. City’s success at being relatively unaffected by injuries has been less due to avoiding them, but having a fantastic ability to adapt and shift players around to plug the gaps.
You see evidence of this by people treating the Rodri injury as the something new for them ignoring that they are already missing Ake and Bobb to significant injuries, and increasing concern about de Bruyne to regain proper fitness.
It also glides past the core of the problem with their disregard for the UEFA and PL cost control regimes. No other club in football can afford the sheer depth they have to make good on injuries. Even a club like Real Madrid in the midst of assembling a new ‘Galacticos’ side starts to look very different when you look down the bench.
And one reason why City didn’t play well during Liverpool’s title winning season was that Pep was still insisting on using wingbacks.
After that season, he stopped using wingbacks gradually - started inverting them(Doesn’t matter that he spent a large chunk of budget on them before) ,Pep realized that he couldn’t beat Klopp with his wingback idealogy.
And finally decided on not bothering with them at all
Yet City their squad is still short enough that they are required to routinely name one or two kids on the bench Pep clearly has little intention of using even when everyone is fully fit. It is not numbers that has largely immunized city against the downsides of injuries, but incredible flexibility of a 7 or 8 different players. Does more money (illegally spent) make it easier to acquire players of such quality? Sure, but it is that selection for game smart, technically sound players who can do a variety of things at a high level that has made them excel rather than the assumption that they go and buy “2 top players for every position”
Rodri’s loss though could be the equivalent of removing a load bearing wall. The players who are likely to be asked to fill in are either not used to playing so regularly (Kovacic) or not expected to (Gundogan? Stones?) With Ake also out, seemingly for a while, it stretches the defense a bit more, gives players likes Stones and Walker a bit less room to sit out when they’re not feeling 100%. And this situation is the sort where problems can compound very quickly. Maybe they get through it, but it puts them at risk of losing one these other players and once one goes the likelihood that 2 or so more will follow quickly is pretty high.
