Pep Guardiola will accept Rodri's call for a rest in the coming weeks, but he didn't have much sympathy for his midfielder ahead of Manchester City's clash with Luton. Rodri has not lost when representing City in 66 games but raised eyebrows after the Blues' draw in Madrid when he told reporters he needs a rest after playing so much.
His performances have admittedly dropped in the last few outings, and Guardiola reacted to the comments by telling his number 16 that he can have a rest if he asks for it. "I didn't speak with him but if he needs a rest he will have rest. Or no. I don’t know," he said. "More than the physicality, it is a case of Spending mental energy. Playing every three days, three days. Of course he's tired, playing a lot of minutes. ALSO READ: Pep Guardiola's Man City fixture fury set to reach boiling point as worst-case scenario outlined ALSO READ: Man City's next six fixtures compared to Arsenal and Liverpool after Europa League drama "Rodri is so important for us and we’ll decide tomorrow what we have to do. If a player doesn’t want to play then he’s not going to play. Simple. Another one will play. If he’s exhausted, it can happen and another player is going to play. "It's not just Rodri. I’d love to rest central defenders but we don’t have them. In the friendly games they were injured and we are in big, big trouble. So they cannot res