I just can’t see us being poor all season. Teams have highs and lows and a guardiola team traditionally goes up a level in the new year. If this is currently our poor period than things really aren’t that bad.
We also don’t need the Ballondor winner coming back at full ability. Even Rodri at 80% wil be enough to see us take control of the middle and knit things together.
Not sure about the 80% part your either back and fit or your not. Difficult to say at this stage if Rodri has just been unlucky and picked up niggles or is he suffering long term implications of his injury and rehabilitation. We probably won't know until the New Year and by then we may well be out of the race. The shambles that was the 2nd half against Leeds does little to encourage belief that we are in with a shout but who knows maybe Phil's last gasp effort might make all the difference in May.
I think it's a pretty open debate. Players can come back not fully fit, and still play an important role. They grit their teeth, and somehow get through. Laporte was a case in point — he said it himself — and it's very much to his credit that he contributed what he did in that last season. (Still feel a bit bad about him going, if I'm honest).
Some while back, I saw a discussion, a panel, between Lampard, Gerrard and a couple of other players. Quite casually, as if it was obvious and everyone there knew it, Lamps said “Let's face it, we often played injured, or at least not quite right. But we played because we wanted to, regardless”. Everyone else just nodded, as if it didn't need further comment.
It hardly needs saying that I want a 100% fit Rodri. But that does not mean, even then, that he'll play with the supreme confidence and swagger he had pre-injury. This is one hell of a long way back, but I remember that Peter Osgood always seemed to play a bit gingerly, as if he was holding back, after he broke his leg. He looked as though he was going to be a phenomenal player. After it, he was a good player. No more.
What I do know is this. A massive part of our problems — and this goes right back to early last season, and has persisted in this — continues to be through the centre of the park. If we can re-establish even most of the control in that area that we took for granted during the period from 2017-2023, we can have a bloody good go at regaining that title. I'm certain that if we remain chaotic through the centre, we have no chance.
