Man City prepared to replace Rodri in January as new defensive midfield target emerges after shift in transfer stance

With the Ballon d'Or-winning midfielder set to miss the rest of the 2024-25 season, City are considering replacements to bring to the club in the fast-approaching January transfer window. It remains to be seen if any signing would simply be a stand-in for the Spaniard or a long-term replacement, amid transfer interest from Real Madrid.

Rodri has been injured since Manchester City's 2-2 draw with Arsenal in September, where he damaged his ACL, and as a result, City have seen their form falter.

They have lost their last three competitive games against Tottenham, Bournemouth and Sporting CP respectively, and even in their victories have looked less than convincing in the absence of the world's best defensive midfielder.

As such, City are considering signing Brazlian midfielder Ederson, according to the i - a player with similar traits to the Spaniard, and who currently plays for Italian side Atalanta. Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi and Samuele Ricci of Torino have also been touted as potential targets recently.

Should they go after any of them in January, it would represent a shift away from the existing recruitment plan, which in recent years has been to do all their business in the summer.

Ahsan Naeem, host of the popular Manchester City podcast '93:20' told the i: "(Mateo) Kovacic, Bernardo (Silva), Ilkay Gundogan – they’re not the most mobile and what we’ve seen against Spurs, against Bournemouth and against Sporting is that if you have run directly at City players and have athleticism, pace and physicality you can get into very good goalscoring positions very quickly and that’s probably where Rodri has been missed most acutely because we’re missing his dynamism.”

He added: "We're basically missing our safety blanket and without the safety blanket there may be a bit of a lack of younger lads. It’s not about one player, it’s about the overall make up and characteristics of the midfield right now.”

Man City travel to Brighton this weekend on their worst run of form in recent memory, and they will need to work hard to pick up a result there, with injuries to John Stones and Ruben Dias further hurting their cause.