'Mini-Rodri' Gonzalez shown he will be loved at Newcastle

A lot has clearly changed since Gonzalez first set foot in the Premier League a year and a half ago and made his Manchester City debut against Newcastle. Of all teams.Before City's 4-0 win, the new arrival had been warned about the intensity Newcastle's midfielders played and pressed with at their snarling best.But the unfazed Spaniard ended up completing a staggering 100 passes, and helped snuff out any potential breakaways from the visitors at Etihad Stadium.It was a glimpse of the skillset - in and out of possession - which convinced Manchester City to sign defensive midfielder Gonzalez from Porto for £50m.City's then manager, Pep Guardiola, even labelled him "our mini-Rodri" in the absence of his influential, injured team-mate.Gonzalez ultimately found an extended run of starts hard to come by once his compatriot returned to full fitness, though.But former Manchester City assistant manager Kolo Toure believes he will have benefited from his experience at the Etihad."When you are in competition against players like Rodri, you learn a lot because you come up against them in training and you have to show the manager you are better than them," he said."You learn from things they do as well and, on the ball, he learned a lot from Rodri. Without the ball he's really good because he can press, get it back and read the game really well."He has this capacity to steal the ball from opponents, which is top. He's better than Rodri at this in my opinion, but Rodri on the ball is the best in the world. "Both of them have different qualities and different strengths."Gonzalez had a close relationship with Rodri and long humbly recognised that only a select number of players can start in his position at clubs bidding to challenge for the biggest honours.Rodri was that man at Manchester City under Guardiola and, following the midfielder's move to Barcelona, new manager Enzo Maresca has signed Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille, having already brought in Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest.The club also look set to make a bid for Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez.It was still not easy for Gonzalez to leave Manchester City, where he felt settled, but Newcastle will give him the platform he has been longing for as a key player.The enthusiastic Spaniard sees this as an opportunity to develop further, which has always been a driver."His mentality is top," Toure said. "I would review games individually with the players and every time I had my laptop and sat next to him, he was so open to learning."He wanted me to show him and I wanted to help him because he was demanding in that way."You want to have players like this because they want to see what they do well and not well, and are open to criticism."He's going to keep on improving because of his mentality."Gonzalez certainly did so when he left Barcelona, where his professional career started, and has such experience to fall back on.Having spent a decade at Barca, and risen through the ranks, Gonzalez ultimately had to depart to truly flourish elsewhere.Following a successful loan spell at Valencia, he joined Porto on a permanent basis at the age of 21 before earning a move to Manchester City.Former Barcelona B team-mate Roger Riera feels he has developed "another vision" as a result."Nico has seen different countries and different styles of football," he said. "He's added a lot of things to his game, which have made him a more complete player."He is a better package now."