Manchester City are currently in dire straits, having lost eight and drawn two and won one of their last 11 fixtures. Things were looking good for Pep Guardiola until their EFL Cup Round of 16 fixture vs Tottenham, when it all came crashing down. Spurs sealed a 2-1 win and the result began to show cracks in a Rodri-less City side. In what looked like an easy match to bounce back to winning ways, City made it back-to-back defeats, losing 1-2 to Bournemouth in their next game, followed by a 1-4 thrashing at the hands of Sporting CP.

Returning back to domestic football, City’s poor form continued, falling to defeats vs Brighton and Tottenham. Then a 3-3 draw vs Feyenoord in the Champions League gave some hope, but it was short-lived as Liverpool came calling. At Anfield, Guardiola was humbled in a 0-2 defeat, but then managed to finally notch a win vs Nottingham Forest, winning 3-0.

But even that winning joy was short-lived, as they drew 2-2 to Crystal Palace and then fell to back-to-back losses vs Juventus and Manchester United.

Now it looks like Guardiola has come up with a contingency plan to fill in the void left by Rodri’s injury. But it looks like Guardiola is not looking for a defensive midfielder and seems to be content with Ilkay Gundogan in that role. According to Tuttosport, he is looking to sign Argentine star Lionel Messi in the winter transfer window, which means that the Spaniard is looking to fill in the leadership void left by Rodri’s absence.

Media reports state that Guardiola is interested in signing Messi on a six-month loan to get his team back on track as the second-half approaches. Messi is currently with Inter Miami and it is being reported that co-owner David Beckham won’t try to block such a move. Messi joined Miami in July 2023, and has played in 39 matches, scoring 34 goals and bagging 18 assists.