Mateo Kovacic is helping unlock a new side to Man City's most important player

With a swipe of his left foot on Sunday at Sheffield United, Rodri scored his second goal of the season in just three Premier League appearances, equalling his tally for the whole of last season.

After assisting on the opening day and then in the Super Cup, Rodri has four goal contributions from four appearances this season, when he managed 11 in 56 outings across the whole of the 2022/23 campaign. He'll match last year's tally by the October international break at this rate.

So why has Manchester City's ever-reliable holding midfielder now turned into a creative midfielder, popping up with key goals and assists at a rate of one per game?

Ask Rodri himself and he'll credit new signing Mateo Kovacic, who has quietly hit the ground running after signing in the summer - at a time when the midfield is undergoing something of a transformation.

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There is no Ilkay Gundogan, while Bernardo Silva has been ill or played on the right. Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez have become more part of the midfield unit, while Kevin De Bruyne's injury is a big loss. John Stones had been pushing up into midfield last season but is out for at least one more game.

For Rodri, having a player like Kovacic slot in and look at home has not only kept a degree of consistency but also allowed him to exploit spaces further up. Maybe he got a taste for scoring big goals at big moments when he ran onto that loose ball in Istanbul and found the back of the net.

As well as Kovacic's arrival, City have also changed their system a little bit, playing two number 10s behind Erling Haaland rather than leaving the creative link between midfield and attack to De Bruyne. That takes