Not Lavia! Manchester City sold Rodri s substitute for 13 million. Does Guardiola regret it?

Before the national team match day in October, Manchester City received a piece of bad news: midfielder Rodri played only 20 minutes in the league before being replaced due to a hamstring injury. The 29-year-old Spanish international has been plagued by injuries since tearing his cruciate ligament last season. Fortunately, the player himself updated the news after the game, saying that the injury "does not look serious" and he is even expected to return against Everton after the international break. Guardiola will obviously be extremely cautious. He will wait until Rodri is 100% recovered before letting him return to the game.

Since last season, Rodri's injury problem has become one of the problems that plagues Manchester City's midfield. In this case, many Manchester City fans are upset about one thing, that is, the team let go of Lavia too early. Like most youth training players, Manchester City made a beautiful deal with Lavia: Lavia, who made nearly one appearance for the first team in 2022, joined Southampton for a transfer fee of 14 million pounds. Lavia impressed on the south coast and a year later he moved to Chelsea for a huge fee.

At Chelsea, Lavia's performance has been recognized by the fans. This season, he has just returned from injury and has only played 2 times, and is trying to gain a foothold in Maresca's 4-3-3 system. In the 2-1 home victory over Liverpool, Lavia came off the bench to make his season debut. Standard reporter Dom Smith gave him a high score of 7 points, calling him an "outstanding performance." But considering that his injury history is equally frequent, even if he stays at Manchester City, he may not be a reliable substitute for Rodri. And Manchester City's real "Rodri's perfect substitute" has actually been let go at a low price this summer.

In Manchester City, it is not easy to substitute Rodri. Lavia has strength, but it is difficult to guarantee attendance; although there are Nico Gonzalez, Phillips and others in the team, the one who can truly seamlessly replace the Spaniard is Perrone, who permanently transferred to Como for only 13 million euros in the summer.

In January 2023, Manchester City signed Perrone from Sarsfield, Argentina. He won the Triple Crown with the team that season, but he only represented the first team twice. Since then, he has been on loan to Las Palmas and Como, and was finally bought out by Como this summer. At only 22 years old, he has become the absolute main force under Fabregas. He has played the entire game in the last three rounds of Serie A and scored his first goal in the game against Atalanta last weekend.

Football analyst Ben Mattinson bluntly said that Perrone could have become "Rhodri's ideal substitute." Data also supports this: last season he completed 2.81 steals + interceptions per 90 minutes, ranking 63% in the same position in Serie A. His passing success rate is as high as 93%, and his long pass success rate is 67%. As a No. 6 with both defensive hardness and forward delivery ability, he can plug and play when Rodri is injured.

This summer, Manchester City only let Perrone go at a low price of 13 million euros, which is likely to prove to be a wrong move, especially considering Rodri's increasingly frequent injury risks. In addition to the fact that Nico Gonzalez, who was introduced for 60 million yuan on the bench, has no highlights, leaving Perrone may be the best answer for Manchester City's midfield.