The Spaniard has become integral to everything Guardiola’s City do and has become a ‘top class’ holding midfielder since joining the Club according to his manager.
Asked how vital he would be in setting the team’s tempo on Sunday, the boss said: “A lot. He is a really, really important player.
“But not just Rodri to make a good process, we need the contribution from everyone.”
Guardiola was then asked whether he knew Rodrigo would become such a vital cog in his starting XI.
Now in his fifth season as a City player, Rodrigo has clocked up 242 appearances for the Blues, scoring 24 goals along the way – many of them crucial strikes at crucial times.
Pep says it’s impossible to know if a player will be a perfect fit due to numerous reasons.
“Yeah, always we try to figure out how good he will settle with us,” he said.
“He was playing in a big team, he was with Villarreal, and they play well and then after he was at Atletico Madrid, a top team.
“When you take players from those environments you expect to get someone who is well educated and has personality - but you never know.
“All teams make mistakes. there are many thousands of reasons why sometimes it doesn’t work.
“Rodri was a young boy, but now with the experience and the games he has played, he has become a top class player.”
Asked if he could see Rodrigo following in the footsteps of another holding midfielder who is doing extremely well in management at present – Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso – by becoming a manager himself one day, Pep said: “He can be yeah - always I had the theory good holding midfielders can become good managers, because they have to see the game in the whole perspective.
“It depends on the desire they have to do it, of course.”
