When Manchester City signed Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante from Atletico Madrid in July 2019, it felt like they had signed the complete holding midfielder.
Rodri, as he’s known in the game, offered composure under pressure, clever forward passes, mobility, ball-winning ability and aerial power too. It was difficult to think of anything he lacked in the defensive midfield role.
Yet he’s become even more of an all-rounder, because City probably weren’t banking on such a major contribution in attack. Last season, Rodri collected a combined 17 goals and assists in the Premier League. That works out as 0.52 per game, equal with Martin Odegaard of Arsenal and Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes — players regarded as two of the league’s outstanding No 10s.
In all, Rodri has now scored 26 goals for City, with only one coming from the penalty spot. It’s difficult to think of a defensive midfielder who offers their team a greater goalscoring output.
So how does he do it?
Set-piece threat
First, Rodri is an aerial threat at set pieces — partly because he’s 6ft 3in (191cm) tall, and partly because he makes very clever runs.
In fact, three of his set-piece goals for City have been strikingly similar — headers from left-wing corners, where Rodri makes quite extreme near-post runs, into a position where it feels too convoluted to flick the ball towards goal (see the trio of orange dots near the corner of the six-yard box in the graphic above). But somehow, he manages to turn the ball home.
Here’s one of the three, against Aston Villa in 2022-23, where he runs into a position in front of all Villa’s zonal defenders to get a free header from well beyond the near post.
His debut international goal, in Spain’s 6-0 thrashing of Germany in 2020, was a similar header.
Variety of finishes
For a player not primarily concerned with scoring goals, it’s noticeable how effectively Rodri strikes the ball in different ways. There have been a couple of absolute thunderbolts in his total, such as this dipping strike against Watford in 2021-22.
But he also has a habit of controlled, calm finishes into the bottom corners, either straight sidefooted finishes or curlers, including this lovely Champions League goal last season against Red Star Belgrade, which came after a dribble forward from a deeper position.
He appears to be, put simply, 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 defences and 5-4-1s
City generally dominate possession in their matches, so opponents often drop deep against them, which allows Rodri to push forward.
But an underappreciated factor is that opposition managers often switch to a five-man defence against City, which generally means a 5-4-1, and therefore just two central midfielders. Therefore, unless their centre-forward drops back goalside of Rodri, he often goes free.
Here’s a goal from last season against West Ham United, who effectively have a surplus at the back, which means being a little 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.
If West Ham had been in a 4-4-1-1, for example, rather than a 4-5-1, perhaps one of their players would be in a No 10 role and naturally in a better position to close Rodri down.
Defenders stepping forward
Maybe “How does Rodri score so many goals when he’s a holding midfielder?” is the wrong question, because he has the advantage of playing in a side where a defender consistently pushes out into midfield, which in turn frees him to move further forward.
Here’s an example from a home Champions League game against Bayern Munich in 2022-23. Would Rodri push on into this position between the lines if John Stones had maintained a position in the centre of City’s defence, rather than stepping out into midfield? Surely not.
Of course, that was only a minor part of the story — next came a brilliant curled finish, and with his weaker left foot too.
Midfield runners creating 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 else is tasked with that half-back position — pushes into midfield, City’s No 8s are given the freedom to become extra attackers. That, in turn, creates space for Rodri. Here are two examples, both leading to crucial goals.
The first came in City’s memorable comeback to win 3-2 at home against Aston Villa on the final day of 2021-22, which clinched 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 a few seconds later, Gundogan and Foden have both made runs in behind the opposition. That has dragged Nakamba and Douglas Luiz deep, practically turning them into extra centre-backs. As a result, Rodri is unmarked on the edge of the D, and has room to calmly sidefoot the ball home for City’s equaliser.
Next 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 the Villa one. Again, the three City players highlighted are the three in central midfield — Rodri, Foden and Bernardo Silva. Again, two opposition central midfielders, Marcelo Brozovic and Hakan Calhanoglu, are highlighted in good positions.
But if we jump forward a few seconds and look at the players’ positioning at the time of the key pass, Bernardo has got to the byline to play the cutback, and Foden is trying to score a poacher’s goal from inside the six-yard box. Their runs mean Brozovic and Calhanoglu have sprinted back and are in line with the Inter centre-backs.
The ball deflects back for Rodri, who isn’t merely unmarked — he has a very clear path to goal, with no opposition defenders in a position to close down the angle.
His ability to shoot with either foot
This is something Rodri has evidently developed over the past couple of years. He is shooting more overall, but the increase has been particularly sharp in terms of doing so with his left foot. He had 21 shots with that foot in his first six senior seasons combined as a regular for Villarreal, Atletico and City. Then in 2023-24 alone, he had 19.
To put it another way, only one of Rodri’s first 15 goals for City came with his left foot — a scruffy close-range winner away at Arsenal on New Year’s Day in 2022 — but four of his 11 since have come via that boot.
Technically, the best example of his left-foot finishing is the curler against Bayern mentioned earlier. But a more telling strike was his only goal at this summer’s European Championship.
With Spain 1-0 down against Georgia in the round of 16 and starting to feel the pressure coming up to half-time, Rodri collected a sideways pass on the edge of the box, wrongfooted opposition midfielder Otar Kiteishvili by checking back onto his left foot, and then shot into the bottom corner. The shooting lane was opened up by him surprising Kiteishvili by turning back onto his weaker side.
So, how do you stop him?
City’s opponents this weekend, Arsenal, know all about Rodri’s goalscoring ability — he scored home and away against them in 2021-22. As the above examples detail, because Rodri’s team-mates create space for him so effectively, and because he has such a variety of shots, it’s very difficult to stop him — especially with so many other goalscoring threats in the City side to worry about.
But the most basic thing is simply keeping the space around him filled.
Too many opponents find their lines dragged apart by the runs of City’s No 8s, or leave themselves undermanned in midfield by beefing up the defence with an extra centre-back — something Arsenal are unlikely to do on Sunday.
There seems a good chance Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will continue with the 4-4-2 shape he used against Tottenham Hotspur in last weekend’s north London derby win — which, when the front two drop deep to keep the side compact, effectively becomes almost a 4-4-2-0.
That alone doesn’t guarantee keeping Rodri quiet, but there’s a reason he wasn’t at all prolific for Villarreal or Atletico and has only scored once in 57 appearances for Spain from open play yet is relatively prolific for City. Yes, his technical quality is outstanding, but it’s mainly about how City’s system is unique in opening up space for their holding midfielder to shoot when he is unmarked.
Arsenal, and other upcoming opponents, must deny him that freedom.
(Top photo: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
