Guardiola's solution for Fernandinho and Rodri at Manchester City

It's been a strong start to life at Manchester City for new signing Rodri. The Blues broke their club record transfer fee to land the former Atletico Madrid player for a fee of around £62million in July.

The midfielder has started all three of City's opening matches so far and looked a calm and commanding presence within each. Prior to his arrival, Pep Guardiola had of course been in the market for a replacement for Fernandinho with the Brazilian expected to receive less game time this season due to his age.

Although, even last season the Brazilian proved again why he was so important to his side. As a deep-lying midfielder, he was involved in almost all of Manchester City's plays, whether it be attacking or defending.

The 34-year-old is close to a return from injury and did make the bench vs Tottenham in his side's 2-2 draw last week. However, given how bright Rodri has started life at the Etihad, Fernandinho looks set to have to settled for a place on the bench again in the coming weeks, but is there a way in which Guardiola could play both players together?

Whilst Fernandinho has only featured as a lone pivot for the bulk of his time in Manchester, that isn't the case of Rodri. Atletico Madrid under Diego Simeone almost always play in a 4-4-2. As a result, Rodri would often have a midfielder partner beside him, which does make the proposition an interesting one.

Both players boast an almost identical skill set, however as we can see in the above, Rodri can slightly better Fernandinho in some key defensive departments.

Some of this can of course be explained by each teams respective tactics last season, with Atletico Madrid being a lot more defence minded in comparison to City, however it would be unfair to label that as the only reason as to why the Spaniard is outperforming his new team-mate.

Additionally, we can also see that Rodri's attacking output is much less than Fernandinho's, with the Brazilian making more assists and averaging more smart passes and through passes per 90 minutes.

Therefore, there is an argument to say that both players could actually compliment each other within a double pivot, should Guardiola favour wanting both players on the pitch at the same time. As we know, the Catalan coach heavily relies on a 4-3-3. His side are well versed in the same and utilised the formation in 78 per cent of all their fixtures last season.