How Man City's new 'mini-Rodri' Nico Gonzalez put Newcastle to the sword

Fifty-nine minutes went by, this particular clock beginning to tick a moment before Omar Marmoush lobbed Manchester City on their merry way.

Fifty-nine minutes in which City dealt with Newcastle, by scoring their first three of four and then managing the game in a way that had felt consigned to history.

Fifty-nine minutes vanished without Nico Gonzalez once losing possession on a Premier League debut that ended with Pep Guardiola describing him as a mini-Rodri.

Not a single stray pass in almost an hour – from minute 18, the middle hour of an afternoon City could ill-afford to muck up - at exactly one every 60 seconds. Backwards, sideways, piercing the final third without ever entering it. All at his own pace. Never rushed, flustered or breaking sweat.

Gonzalez had the ball for 10 per cent of the entire match, one that will be remembered for Marmoush's hat-trick but equally belonged to a Spaniard who City first wanted to sign nine years ago. He attempted two long passes all game and never once tried to hit Erling Haaland.

His touches hit 112, totalling 27 more than second-placed Ilkay Gundogan.

Short, sharp, no messing. This was control, it was assured, unusual for a new Guardiola signing, so many of whom need 12 months to acclimatise rather than a quarter of an FA Cup tie at Leyton Orient - and perhaps even longer to start dishing out tactical direction to Haaland. It was duck meeting water.

Guardiola said a few days back that City are at their most vulnerable in possession these days, which was an astonishingly frank admission from somebody who prefers to do his defending with the ball rather than without.

But it is obvious and something City's manager cannot avoid, that their errors in presenting opportunities to opponents has not been positional. They've literally gift-wrapped chances, handed over with a bow, as evidenced last Tuesday when Real Madrid helped themselves to some familiar late drama. Here, take the ball. No, you go on.

Putting Gonzalez in that team last week does not definitely alter the overall result yet it does offer more protection in transition. It gives a defensively deficient City an added layer of hope.

The heavy knock he'd taken down at Orient meant he played no part, the superb John Stones required in midfield with a tired pair of Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva. City had more of the ball yet never felt like that area of their pitch was truly theirs.

There can be no conceivable reason for the 23-year-old not to start in the Bernabeu on Wednesday for what is Mission Impossible. Impossible, improbable, whatever – and while Guardiola will not be thinking of what next season looks like right now, Gonzalez in there at Real may give some glimpse of how they could emerge as a team from their lowest ebb in years.

Just one game and Newcastle were poor, never majorly threatening on the break.

The 59 minutes do not lie though. The century of completed passes do not lie, one stat provider stating 100, another 98. Either way, they're good numbers. The way Gonzalez, £50million from Porto, used his frame to ease Joe Willock and Tino Livramento out of counters – arms unnaturally high, elbows out in a slightly ungainly, Rodri style – do not lie.

The sample size is tiny but it's an encouraging one nonetheless. He's the first City player all season to attempt 100 passes, 10 or more of which successfully hitting the final third with an accuracy above 95 per cent. Worse starts have existed.

And that should offer excitement, wondering what the midfield looks like once Rodri does return, given Gonzalez can operate further forward.

Attacking tendencies come from his father, Guardiola's ex-Spain team-mate Fran, a cultured left winger who spent his entire career at Deportivo La Coruna.

A man who scored the crucial winning goal against AC Milan to take the enchanting Deportivo team of 2004 – one including Diego Tristan and Juan Carlos Valeron – into an unlikely and romantic Champions League semi-final. Sadly for Fran, Jose Mourinho lay waiting with a fairytale of his own at Porto.

Mourinho and Porto: funny how football links things like that.

Gonzalez, a product of Barcelona's La Masia and whom Guardiola knew about when coaching at Bayern Munich, was only a toddler then and almost joined City at 14 when Fran was coaching the Under 18s. There were discussions later in the youngster's development too. 'But we had Fernandinho and Rodri,' Guardiola said.

Now it's Gonzalez and Rodri. Well not quite now, but soon enough.