Manchester City's defenders need to contribute more in front of goal to help ease the pressure on Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, according to Rodri.
The Spaniard played at centre-back for Spain at the World Cup, but has returned to his usual defensive midfield berth at City against Liverpool and Leeds, scoring his first goal of the season at Elland Road on Wednesday night to open the scoring.
It looked as though City may rue a number of missed chances from Haaland, Jack Grealish and Ilkay Gundogan, until Rodri poked in a rebound on the stroke of half-time. Speaking after the game, Rodri stressed the importance of goals coming from all areas of the pitch rather than over-relying on Haaland.
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“I think we all have to be involved in scoring goals," he said.
"As you saw last season every player was involved and this year we have Erling Haaland. We need to be involved because in many games they cover Erling, Kevin and the players up front and maybe the centre-halves and midfield have to make the difference – that was the example today.”
However, Rodri was still expectant of City's forward line, as he explained in another interview that he shouldn't have been needed to break the deadlock after a dominant first half at Leeds.
He explained: "It was important, these goals make the pain in the rivals in the last minute of the first half. We deserved to be on top, you have to score, that's the rule of football. We create three or four chances in the first half. But we miss and have to be focussed on scoring goals."
Overall, though, Rodri was positive about the effect that three points at Leeds could have on City's title chances, adding: "We had a few chances in the first half to get the lead and that goal in the final minutes was important. In the second half – in the first 10-15 minutes – we killed the game with the rhythm and intensity. This is the performance we need to get the chance to fight for the Premier League.
“We don’t think much about the other teams. We don’t want the gap to be big. We want to win the Premier League and we know we have the experience. There’s six months to go and we have to be calm and patient and try to win every single game.”
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