Manchester City’s plan for the upcoming season is to win back the Premier League title from Liverpool.
There have been several changes made during the summer to make that happen, as Pep Guardiola has seen Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri, and Marcus Bettinelli added to his squad so far.
While there have also been changes to the Spaniard’s coaching staff, with both Pep Lijnders and James French arriving.
These are expected to help City close the gap to Liverpool; however, if the Manchester club are to win the Premier League, they will need one star back to his best, but Alan Shearer expects him to struggle during the first two months of the new campaign.
Alan Shearer walking ahead of Newcastle United v Manchester United.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Rodri will need two months to get back to his best
The absence of Rodri last season had a detrimental effect on Man City’s season as the midfielder missed months of action after suffering a long-term knee injury.
The 29-year-old made his first start for the Manchester club in months against Juventus during the FIFA Club World Cup; however, Rodri left the Al-Hilal game complaining of a fitness issue.
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Ally McCoist thinks Rodri’s issue is just niggles and speaking on The Rest Is Football, Shearer shares the same opinion, revealing that it could take two months into the new season before Man City fans see the best of the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner again.
“Well, it’s a bit of everything because nothing works perfectly until you actually get out onto the pitch and play proper games,” Shearer said when asked about his return from an ACL injury.
“Forget about training sessions, forget about practice games. You never feel right until you’re actually out onto the competitive games.
“Then you forget about the movement. Everything sort of tries to come naturally, and all of a sudden you’re back into it again. You’re stretching for that. You’re overstretching for this.
“It’s not as if, because you’ve not been part of aggressive, full-on football for so long. I think it’s just natural.
“The injury, it’s just feeling as if that’s perfect, because for so long you’ve been training on your own, and then you’re back in the environment of game time.
“There’s no doubt it’s going to take time, and he won’t be back to his very best until a month or two into the season if he starts the season again.”
A dejected Rodri during Manchester City v Al-Hilal at the FIFA Club World Cup.
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
Man City have a tough start to the 25/26 Premier League season
If Man City are to regain the Premier League title, they will need to get off to a good start, and unfortunately for Pep Guardiola, the Manchester club have a tough start to the new campaign while they wait for Rodri to get back to full speed.
Within the first two months of the 25/26 campaign, City will face Tottenham, Man United, and Burnley at the Etihad Stadium. While travelling away to Wolves, Brighton, and Arsenal.
It might not take Rodri that long to get close to his best, as the Spaniard now has a month off to recover and work on himself before things start up again.
The £63m star will be hoping to start City’s first game of the campaign against Wolves, and although the goal is to get the midfielder back to 100%, Guardiola also needs to be careful not to reinjure the Spanish star.