Fulham manager Marco Silva is well aware of the size of the task that faces his side at the Eithad Stadium this weekend, despite Manchester City being without Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne.
The Premier League champions, who are also without Nathan Ake and Oscar Bobb, are currently unbeaten in the league, but are without a win in their last two outings.
Saturday’s game represents an opportunity to pick up our first win at Man City since 2009, but Marco is well aware of the quality at Pep Guardiola’s disposal, even with key personnel missing.
“To be clear, and I think Pep has already spoken about it, if any team in the world loses a player like Rodri, you are going to miss something,” Marco said in his pre-match press conference.
“It’s almost impossible to find another player like him. They have players who perform at a top level, but for them Rodri is a special one and even in the Euros he was a top player.
“They have other solutions; you see how [Mateo] Kovacic is playing there, they have [Ílkay] Gundogan now and he’s player who Pep has used well in many different ways, and now they have [Phil] Foden coming back in a good shape.
“We need to show massive respect to them because if it’s not Rodri it’ll be another one, if it’s not De Bruyne it’ll be another one. They have so much individual quality in their squad.”
Following an undefeated September, Silva was nominated for the Premier League Manager of the Month award earlier this week. It could potentially be a Fulham double scoop, as Raul Jimenez received a Player of the Month nomination following his goalscoring streak in September.
Despite receiving recognition, Marco says the nominations are due to the collective effort of the team rather than individuals.
“It’s more about the team and the Club,” he said. “It’s a consequence of our performances over the last few games. We have to be pleased with the way we are playing, especially because a number of new players have been settling in.
“We still have big room to improve game by game, training session by training session in order to compete at the best level, because the Premier League is so demanding.
“We always have to look forward. We are pleased with what we’ve done, with the nomination, and the one for Raúl, who is in good shape as well, but the main focus is on the pitch, how we can improve as a football Club and how we can make the players confident on a matchday.”
Marco ended the press conference by confirming that Jorge Cuenca and Carlos Vinicius remain unavailable for selection, but there are no fresh injury concerns among the squad.