Gareth Southgate’s England side head to Berlin on Sunday to face their second consecutive Euros final, this time against Spain – and the Three Lions boss may have a secret weapon to deploy against La Roja’s main threat.
If anyone deserves the ‘Rolls-Royce’ moniker it is Manchester City’s Rodri. He glides across the pitch, tempo-setting and controlling possession like no other currently playing the game.
It’s not his general command over games, though. He’s a presence in defensive phases and can both create and finish attacks, all in a day’s work. In short: England need an answer to Rodri to stand a chance at the Olympiastadion.
How will England and Gareth Southgate deal with Spain's Rodri?
Well, luck has been a popular theme of the Three Lions’ tournament so far and, as luck would have it, Southgate is carrying one of the best anti-Rodri weapons on the market. The downside? It would involve a bold choice, that not everybody would be on board with.
Chelsea were one of the only teams to remain undefeated by Man City in their rampant charge to a fourth consecutive Premier League title last season and there was a fairly unlikely architect to their success.
In both games – a 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge followed by a 1-1 in the return fixture at the Etihad – Conor Gallagher was the man charged with disrupting the Spaniard’s operation, and he did so excellently.
He was notionally played in the no.10 role for both meetings, but that was predominately to get him in the same areas as the deeper-lying Rodri.
As a nod to how hard the Spanish midfield maestro is to neutralise, Goal.com noted in their summary of the February instalment in Manchester that Gallagher was one of the best players on the pitch for his role in monitoring Rodri, and still Guardiola's apprentice found a route to goal on both occasions. Things likely would have been worse without the Chelsea man’s laser-like focus.
Gallagher has appeared in all but one of England’s Euro 2024 games, but only once from the start and always as Declan Rice’s accomplice. Having tried the Blues midfielder and Trent Alexander-Arnold there, Southgate seems to have settled on Kobbie Mainoo for that gig, who has almost played a Rodri-like tempo-setting game himself.
Regardless, to counteract the La Roja’s controller the same way he did against Chelsea, Gallagher may need to be deployed further up the pitch to meet Rodri in his natural habitat.
This is where Southgate could hit a snag. Having just about cobbled together some space for Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham to operate, can he afford to lose one of them to send Gallagher on a special deployment? Failing that, the 24-year-old would likely come in for Mainoo which, with Gallagher pre-occupied, could leave Rice exposed in the middle.
The England boss is already often charged with being too cautious, and this move would not quell that noise, but there is no escaping the secret weapon that he has in his back pocket. He’ll have to be bold to use it.
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