One day Pep Guardiola said to Mascherano during the Barcelona stage of both: “When you are a coach, you will see: you will want to play with ten midfielders”. The coach of Santpedor ironically says that the secret of his career is to have managed Leo Messi first and then HÃ¥land. But the truth is that in the three Champions Leagues he has won, with two trebles, the engine room, the center of the field, the organizers have had a very considerable weight. It happened in 2009 and 2011 with Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta, a triangle that dominated the world. History repeated itself in Istanbul. De Bruyne retired after half an hour injured, but a converted Stones and, above all, Rodrigo remained on the field.
In the summer of 2019, Manchester City paid the termination clause to release Rodrigo Hernández from his contract with Atlético de Madrid. 70 million, it cost. Since yesterday, the Madrid midfielder is a legend in the blue half of Manchester. eternal Indelible idol. The first who gave glory, the one who opened the way. Author of a historic goal. As Koeman is for Barça. Like Juary in Porto. Or Platini for Juventus. Magath in Hamburg. Or Stevie Chalmers for Celtic. A name that is not forgotten, that lives on in the imagination.
Rodrigo, like Stones, like Gündogan, De Bruyne or Bernardo Silva, all have grown under Guardiola, a midfielder before a coach. But the pivot, also trained at Villarreal, has gained in personality with the ball, makes it easy on the field and has also struggled to improve his shot, even if it is not his virtue, just by threatening from the front He scored a goal with his left leg in the box for Bayern. Yesterday the ball fell to the right on the front and he didn’t waste it. “I had in mind to finish strong. But I thought: ‘You will have one in the match, place it’. And it went in”, explained his shot with the interior, which went in stuck to the post.
Naturally, it is essential for Guardiola. He has played 56 games this year, only four as a substitute. The coach doesn’t take him out even when he plays badly. “I was horrible in the first half. unbecoming of me The coach told me to my face during the break that I was bad and encouraged me, he told me that I am a leader and that I had to change my mentality. It’s what I did”, he confessed, with a lot of self-criticism and with his feet on the ground. “I do not believe it. This shows that with work any normal kid like me can get this far”, he says. Rodri, the perfect neighbor, and Guardiola are already endless in Manchester.
