Rodri believes he can step up within the Manchester City squad after a number of leaders have left the club in recent years – but he doesn’t have any burning desires to take the captain’s armband from Fernandinho this season.
Rodri said: “I think I can improve. I’m 26 and see myself as getting even better. When I speak with my friends and the team I say that if I can do the same as last season then that’s great – but I can see myself getting better. I want to improve every season. Every year has got better since I arrived. The first year I came you adapt to your position and the second year you start growing up. The third year you are consolidated in the team, and now I feel that I control all aspects of the game. I can grow. I had to adapt to the manager and the club and now I can grow as a player.”
Regarding leadership specifically, Rodri admitted he can improve most in this area, especially with a number of experienced players leaving in recent seasons.
Rodri said: “I don’t know as a role of a captain physically. That is the gap I have to improve in the most. We don’t have many leaders because players like Vincent, David, Sergio, Fernandinho are gone and they were at the club for so many years. Now we have to take that role on. Ruben has done it. I feel that it can be my role, more on the pitch than outside the pitch. But that is the gap where I can improve. The players who play through the middle have a better view of everything. It’s easier there to organise.”
The Spaniard also responded to the controversial PFA Team of the Year for last season, where he was curiously overlooked for Liverpool’s Thiago Alcantara despite many City fans and neutrals feeling he had been in better form.
Rodri said: “Honestly, I don’t pay much attention to individual awards because it depends on many things. It did surprise me – but I accepted it. It’s part of the game, part of sport, and I just want to do the same as I did last year because it was incredible. For me, the most important thing is collective achievements like the Premier League. The rest is just a secondary part of football. Of course, we all like to win awards but it’s not part of my ambition.”
