Foden focused on Quad quest
CITY headed into this month’s international break in an incredibly strong position.
The squad pulled together in incredible fashion in December to produce a 21-match winning run in all competitions and set themselves up for a campaign that could still yet deliver an historic four trophies.
While the strength of Pep Guardiola’s side has been in their collective effort, it has still been a campaign where some players have surpassed expectations and others have slipped below them.
Ahead of the final two months of the season, here is a look at who has excelled and who still has something to prove in the hunt for more silverware.
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WINNERS RUBEN DIAS
Surely the player of the season for City and in the Premier League. Dias was lumped into a dysfunctional defence after one training session and almost immediately transformed the backline into the leanest in the country.
Dias has barely missed a game and City are well on course for their highest tally of clean sheets in a single campaign, with a remarkable 28 in 47 matches so far.
His no-nonsense defending and organising, complete with the encouragement and advice he constantly gives to team-mates, has been instrumental in City’s success this season and his impact is all the more incredible considering he was by no means the standout candidate in the summer when the Blues were looking for a centre-back.
RODRI
Guardiola believes that good holding midfielders should not make any newspaper headlines and Rodri has done an excellent job of disappearing from the spotlight.
As last season’s disappointment grew the former Atletico midfielder began to stick out more and more as he struggled to master his new role with little support from his teammates.
Dias is the only outfield player to feature more than Rodri this season as the 24-year-old has grown into the holding role and become the conductor of the City orchestra that keeps everything in harmony.
JOAO CANCELO
It is easy to forget that Cancelo did not feature for City before the September international break while they were suffering their worst results of the season.
It wasn’t clear then how important he would be to the team when he returned from injury but the impact since has been phenomenal.
A player left out of a 20-man squad for a cup final only a year ago has been an integral reason behind the Blues storming ahead in the Premier League as opponents have been unable to deal with the hybrid role he has been operating in.
PHIL FODEN
When will Guardiola give Foden some game time?!
It is a question that does continue to be brought up with some legitimacy: it was strange that the England youngster didn’t start a league game for two months and was benched more often than not in recent weeks.
However, the stats do not lie: Foden has been one of the most used players for City this season, managing more than 2,500 minutes to feature more frequently than Kevin de Bruyne, John Stones and Gabriel Jesus to name but a few.
He has shown his versatility across the front line and scored that stonkingly good goal to crown the club’s seismic victory at Anfield at the beginning of February.
No City player has been involved in more goals or assists than Foden’s 24 (11 goals, 13 assists).
JOHN STONES
The romance of Stones’s return to form could threaten Dias as the best story in City’s march to the (expected) title.
If the first few weeks of the season saw him rarely turned to, he seized his moment in November with both hands and hasn’t looked back as he has formed an outstanding partnership with Dias and played his way back into the England squad.
Aleks Zinchenko is owed some credit for winning back the left-back spot, but the way Stones has kept Aymeric Laporte out of the team for so long has been seriously impressive and his newfound knack for scoring goals as well as not conceding them has proven extremely useful.
ILKAY GUNDOGAN
Hands up who had Ilkay Gundogan down to be City’s top scorer this season?
One of the most affected by getting Covid – which ruled him out of the opening five matches of the season – the German came into his own as the team’s form picked up in late December and has produced an unbelievable run in front of goal.
His performance against West
Brom in January was simply irresistible and he has finally silenced the section of the fanbase that used to moan whenever he made the team.
■ LOSERS SERGIO AGUERO
Sergio Aguero could yet be at City next season but nobody expected his future would be so up in the air with so little time left on his contract.
The club have always said their record scorer could leave on his terms but said at the start of the season his priority needed to be getting over his injury problems – and that has taken longer than anyone expected.
As Guardiola has said, City haven’t had the time in recent months to allow Aguero to play his way back to full rhythm and currently look a better team without him in it.
The international break is an opportunity for the 32-year-old to keep building himself up and make himself undroppable for the huge matches coming up before the end of the season but it has been a massively frustrating season.
BENJAMIN MENDY
Another year of disappointment for Mendy where he has failed to make the left-back spot his own.
Another injury did not help matters in the autumn but the Frenchman has been fit for months now yet finds himself firmly down the pecking order. Mendy has to hope he can have a comeback as big as Cancelo but it is hard to see him having a major impact in the final months of this campaign.
AYMERIC LAPORTE
City’s Premier League campaign last season was derailed because they lost Laporte to injury. This season, they have not needed him as Stones and Dias have built a title
winning platform instead.
Laporte remains the best left sided centre-back when everyone is fit but has not been as consistent as either of his main rivals for a place in the team and does not complement either of them like they do each other.
The French defender can expect to be involved in the run-in but perhaps not as much as he would like, and as one of the most valuable assets in the squad there could be a big decision in the summer.
RAHEEM STERLING
Sterling has been important to City this season but has fallen short of his own high standards in front of goal.
He wants to score important goals in the biggest matches but has been unable to do so regularly enough, meaning he is comfortably behind Gundogan in the scoring charts.
Having been undroppable for much of the last three seasons, the 26-year-old has fallen behind Foden, Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo in recent months and needs to rediscover his form again if he is to force his way back into the team for the biggest games that are left.