AMAZING season over, how did I rate our players?
Formula
How I do this, is to keep a full
record-list of players and adjust their score accordingly as the season
progresses. I only rate our players against either Premier League opposition, no matter what competition that may be in, or against
Champions League sides.
I also have a *
& ** rating, which stands for a player being
in particularly good / excellent form on top of their overall rating out of 10.
I really liked Joe Hart and, unlike a lot of short-term-memory, dare I say, slightly fickle fans I heard at the time Pep issued his ‘changing of the gloves’ orders; I simply
recalled the many, many wonderful performances from the former, England
number 1 keeper that not only kept us in / won us many games but also went a
long way to help us begin to fill our trophy cabinets. So much did I respect
the fella, in fact, that he was still in our team when I drew up my all-time
City 11 & subs…and he was my main keeper! I also gave him my player of the
season more than once, if memory serves.
But times and styles did change and it was
clear that Joe just wasn’t ‘that sort of keeper’. I did think at the time, though,
that such a professional could be retrained to be a ball player as well as a
terrific ‘stopper’ but, looking back, I do remind myself that basic “kicking
out” wasn’t his finest quality.
So, we – and football – quickly moved on.
Well, Ed is currently doing a flippin’ good
job with his application form to get into my all-time, City 11 / squad, that’s
for sure. Of course, it’ll take many more years of playing in a City shirt to
fully deserve a place but…does this guy have everything or what?!
I’ve called him a “warrior” in the past;
one of the bravest keepers I’ve seen. He looks like he would purposely save at the feet of an attacker with his face…and looks like he has done
several times (don’t tell him I said that!). His anticipation, reaction and shot-stopping are all in the
column headed-up, “Excellent”; as is, of course, his tremendous footwork
ability and mid-to-long range passing. I love the fella and having him
ever-present in the league campaign plus other competitions has gone a long,
LONG way to helping us achieve all that we have achieved.
A few wobbly, lack of concentration moments?
A few. But my WORD he’s allowed those in an otherwise assured season.
I don’t do what some publications do after
the match, which is to give the likes of Ederson 6/10 if they’ve had little to
do save-wise. Instead, what I do is to look at what they contributed in an
otherwise quite game defensively; with regards to how much confidence and
smooth interaction he had with his defenders / defensive midfielder. Otherwise,
the fella would end up with an end-of-season rating that would reflect poorly
on his actual contribution.
My
rating: 8.5 * / 10
Mr reliable – simple as. He’s definitely
more assured than he was when we first sign him; first signed him from Real Madrid, that is, where the fans were starting
to get on his back before moving to City. I said in this piece same time last year that Pep would fill him with confidence and I
believe he has done just that.
I don’t think he’ll ever be more than a
good, 7/10’er but, because of the form of someone I’ll move onto soon, a lot of
City fans at one stage of the season were hoping to see the Brazilian start
at right-back. Oddly enough, he could be one of a few that’ll be moving on in
the summer. If he does, I’m sure he’ll go with a, “Thanks for some crucial,
solid performances & cruicial cover fella”.
My
rating: 7/10
Honestly, I believed early on last season that it would be ‘our
skip’s’ last at the club and I was right. Honestly, I did not think he would play as many
games as he did towards the end of the season. I was wrong. Honestly, despite
how good he still looked in general, how well he was playing and how fit &
strong he appeared to be; I honestly still got jittery a couple of games when I saw him
in the starting 11 against teams who, I believed, could have undone him / us for
pace. I was wrong both times.
What a hero!
In my all-time City 11? He was before this
season. Our best ever Captain? Well there have been some quality City Captains
before him but I’d have to say, yes.
What he may have lacked in pace towards the end he MORE
than made up for in ALL areas of other attributes and it’s those attributes
that saw him and his team cross the last 2 markers to finish treble winners.
It would be easy to go over the top with my
marking for Vinny with the influence he had on the team and season, especially
after “that” goal. In my current form rating, he definitely gets 2-stars…
My
rating: 8** / 10
Paul Lake – and possibly one or two other players whose names escape me –
have been described as “Roll Royce” like
over the years. Someone might want to explain that to this Frenchman…and
explain also that it’s a fine compliment.
Oozes class & calmness…the latter most of the time. Has pace to keep up with most and when he has to
slide-in at the end of one of those chases, he does so with great timing 9
times from 10.
He does have a little ‘hot head’ in him and
sometimes appears easily provoked…and this can ‘spill over’ a little too much
when we need calmness at the back. Again, Pep will have spotted and will manage
that.
Chips in with some vital headed goals too!
He’s gonna be with us for some considerable time, I’m sure, and I’m looking
forward to us finding his long-term partner in blue.
My
rating: 8.5 / 10
Actually made enough appearance to warrant
a mark! Looked like he’d finally got over his second, nasty injury too, which
concerned me a little; concerned me because he might then come in and disrupt
what had started to look like something solid on the left of our defence.
But then he broke down again and ended the
season seeing a specialist in Barcelona.
My
rating: 6.5 / 10
The Argentine probably isn’t too pleased
with the amount of games he featured in the season just gone and I think that
reflected in the quality of his performances whenever called upon. Never
terrible by ANY stretch but he got a well-deserved 8 / 10 form me at the end of
last season.
My
rating: 7 / 10
Another central defender who didn’t see as
much action as he would have liked. Unlike Nicholas, however, a lot of his absences
were down to injury niggles…again. And, like Nicholas, decent when he was asked
to start or come on as a sub.
My
rating: 7 / 10
One of the quotes of the season I’ll never
forget from a fellow Blue ‘down my local’ referred to Kyle when he said, “This
fella has taken huge strides…backwards”. Funny…and how very true.
Had an AWFUL start to the season; had an
awful first quarter of the season, had an awful second quarter to the season
(and was probably around the time City fans were-then-hoping to see Danilo in
the starting 11 on the right of the defence) and had a distinctly average third
quarter of the season.
And he knew it himself as well when, about
half way through the season, he admitted in a post-match interview that he
needed to find his form again. Still, weeks later, that never happened.
However, I give him credit for not letting
his head drop and the form he was searching so hard for came into sight, as he
ended the season with a couple of good months. He was heading for
a 5 at one point…
My
rating: 7 / 10
What an awful, injury-ravaged season one of
our star men had! There isn’t much more else to say, really, other than you can
only mark him for what he did when he was fit & playing, of course. And,
for that, he was mostly amazing when injury-free periods allowed. Kudos to the Belgium
international!
My
rating: 8.5 * / 10
Simply put, worse season for him in a City
shirt. Didn’t feature much…and featured much less as the season went by. I put
the latter, at least, down to really off-colour performances from the England
man that eventually lead to his permanent exclusion. I can’t see him being here
next season either. Shame, he had a really good, 8 /
10 season last time out, which a lot of Blues seem to forget or want to ‘blank
out’ in their new pursuit for near-perfection.
My
rating: 5 / 10
The man, despite his age and the rigours
fighting so long & hard for 4 trophies, just kept going for the most part
and most certainly kept the quality of his play going. Time did catch up with
him towards the end, where he had to swap match-day pitch for treatment rooms.
Still…
My
rating: 8 / 10
The player is “good” and is highly likely
to improve on that “good” rating with a few more years of coaching under Mr
Guardiola, I would say. But I do cringe just a little whenever I hear City fans and general pundits alike going
over the top about the Stockport-born player who turns 19 in a few days’ time.
I like the look of him myself but I refuse
to get sucked into the theory that he is definitely going to be a BIG player in
the future. It’s too early to tell, for me, and a poor display against Leicester City, in fact, saw him substituted on 56 minutes and then didn’t even
make the bench in our last 2, vital games in order to complete the treble.
Still, mostly “good” displays from our
young midfielder whenever given the chance and, so…
My
rating: 7 / 10
Or “Mr Marmite”,
as I’ve come to think of him in recent months. I’ve heard some City fans who
can’t find it within themselves to find a good word for him; others, in fact,
are downright scathing about the German international!
I know he’s not in the same class as Kevin
or either of the Silvas but, let’s not forget, we were told at the start of
the season that he and the backroom team at City have to manage his long-term
fitness with regards to the awful injury he received just after signing for us in
2016. I’ll add also that he was brought in as a creative, more forward-thinking
midfielder rather than the defensive midfield cover man we’ve asked him to
become in recent times.
He can make wrong decisions with his
passing and his passing radar can be off at times. But, overall, I think he’s
done better than decent for us most of the time and that goes for the season
just gone too.
My
rating: 7.5 / 10
“We
don’t need him”. “He’s no improvement on what we’ve got”. “I don’t want him”.
“I’d rather we spend that money on a (BLANK) than on him”. “Where’s he gonna play,
who do we leave out?”. These were questions, to mention just a few, that a lot
of City fans were asking as the deal looked to be almost done. Me? I was
quietly nodding in agreement with some of those comments with a…“Wait ‘n’ see / could be
a good signing” rider.
I
waited and I saw.
I
saw a player who, at first, appeared to be trying too hard, which was
unsettling his game and the whole team, to a point. I then saw a player who,
despite the odd decent run, chance and occasional assist, appeared to be just
all over the shop; failing to beat a man, cross a ball or shoot accurately for
the most part. He looked completely lost in our system in fact.
But
Pep worked and worked and worked on him and, towards the VERY end, we saw
improvement. He was never carrying weight but he somehow looked leaner &
sharper. His runs & passing interplay improved, as did his crossing and
shooting. Similar to Kyle’s season in some ways.
My
rating: 7 / 10
Not
as good-a-season as the last one from the German, I would sum up the-season-just-gone
as being for the wild-haired-winger. He still has BAGS of talent and I disagree
with those who say that he doesn’t work for the team – I just don’t see that in
him at all.
The
worst I would say about Leroy is when he has a bad game and looks out of sorts,
he really does have a stinker and although every player of his calibre does
have an off game or two, his inconsistences do seem to come a little too often
at times and you just KNOW that he has it within him to quash that if he
applies himself correctly.
Unless
Pep has had enough of trying to mould the young winger and those rumblings are
being leaked in order to drum-up outside interest; I’m still pretty amazed at
the strong rumours linking Sane with a move away this summer.
My
rating: 7.5 / 10
“Grew and grew
and GREW into the season as the months ticked by”. That
was my opening line about the Portuguese attacking winger / midfielder in LAST
season’s rating article, this time last year. This season, he jumped even
higher from the growth mark he left himself at last season and simply got
better and better.
So intelligent with his running and interplay. He really does ‘mix it
up’ and just when you think he might run down a predicted route, he surprises
you (and the defending player) more often than not. I actually think he’s
better on the right wing but I can absolutely see why a lot see his long-term
future in the middle with Kevin or whoever. My player of the season.
My
rating: 9*
One of my all time, favourite City players
is a fact I won’t hide from anyone. But just to prove that I’m a fair, unbiased
blog writer; I will state quite firmly that, for large parts of last season,
our Spanish magician had some very understated games by his standards.
Furthermore, I agreed whenever it was that the
decision was made to start him on the bench, as other players deserved their
starts ahead of him. But you can’t keep a good brilliant man down for long and as the season came to its various,
dramatic conclusions; David stepped back up a couple of notches and proved a
key figure in many games. This rating might be the lowest, end-of-season mark
I’ve ever given him but, still…
My
rating: 7.5 / 10
The boy has become a man. There have been
many accolades directed at Raheem in the season just gone (as well as foul
abuse form the stands) but that’s my tribute. He really has matured on the
pitch while, many would say who know him, he’s always been just that off it.
He really has shown an incredible maturity
to deal with off-field shenanigans but on it, we’ve also seen his consistency
levels rise a lot too. And do you recall that other, annoying trait our hugely
talented winger / attacking forward used to have? Decision making? I don’t
recall seeing that in him in the season just gone. Despite tailing off a little towards the end of our campaign…
My
rating: 8.5* / 10
Now,
get a piece of moulding clay. Got it? Okay, now sculpt something…anything.
Finished? Now, using your fist, mash it up! Trust me. Okay…make something else
not only just as pleasing on the eye but also something that will be of real
use to you.
That’s what Pep Guardiola has done with the
once left-sided, attacking midfielder / winger from the Ukraine. And that,
ladies & gentleman, is why I also laugh whenever I hear any bitter
comments coming from non-City fans about Pep being a “fake” and is only
successful because he comes into clubs with established, top-class players in
most positions and a cargo ship full of cash to spend on top of that.
This lad has been utterly transformed into
a very accomplished left-wing back; one who I have every confidence in being
just as good defensively as he looks naturally going forward – for me a perfect
balance if you’re going to play someone in that ‘duel role’.
And at his tender age of 22-½, there’s time
yet to improve even more those defensive qualities to ease any fears some fans
might still have about ‘Kevin Junior”. And ask yourselves this question,
remember the injury record & form of two players I’ve already mentioned;
where would we have been this season without Oleks performing as well as he has
done?
And to think, he was apparently on the
verge of a £13M move to Wolves last summer!
My
rating: 8 / 10
Even if this guy doesn’t have the very best
personal seasons…he’s still one hell of a frightening monster to have in your
side leading the attack. And, despite the wonderful array of creative &
attacking talent that he has behind him that most strikers would LOVE to have;
we have to remind ourselves that he is still largely seen as the main man ‘up there’
to finish – we rarely, if ever, give him a striking partner to play with / off.
However, some would say that he has several
attacking partners but, what I’m getting at is, he still has to largely plough
that central, attacking path alone in many ways and it’s a route that is
getting heavier with rows of thorny, defensive bushes; as teams desperately
throw bodies in the way in an attempt to stifle our attacks.
That can make it difficult for our
Argentine hero at times and, at times,
he did appear to have quiet, frustrating games; far more that he / we would
have liked. But still, huff…,
32 goals in all competitions? It seems, therefore, a little crass of me to give
the following mark after that ‘goal stat’ (some fans may think it a little low) but my marks are a season-long,
flowing one and the little battleship did lose a few knots of speed in the
latter weeks. Still…
My
rating: 8 / 10
Didn’t really get much of a chance in the
season just gone, which was largely down to Sergio’s rare, low-injury-record
season and a middle part of the season / winter time where our main striker was
firing.
When Gabriel did get his chance for a few
weeks; if memory serves it was mostly against lower league opposition and when
he finally gained some traction, he did really well I thought. Then he had to take a back
(side) seat one again until the latter weeks; where he managed a few more
appearances, most notably, on occasions, as an attacking winger / wide forward,
where I thought he played really quite well.
This is another player that most City fans
aren’t quite sure about or, indeed, differ on a lot; with those who aren’t
quite convinced highlighting a very good point about the amount of times he
gets caught offside.
I think we need to keep and develop him
more under Pep and with one of the best strikers in the WORLD ahead of him in a
team that likes to play with just one striker; it’s little wonder he can’t gain
any momentum and that, I think, needs to be factored in when judging the
22-year old.
My
rating: 7.5 / 10
How
can I not give this after all we battled through and won / came close to
winning?!
My
rating: 10 / 10
Pep
Some
might criticise him for what he did in the first leg of the semi-final of the
Champions League that eventually saw us depart that competition by the skin of Spurs’ teeth and, fair enough to a point. Huh, but still…
My rating: 9.9 / 10
A
look at player ‘ins & outs’ in my next piece. Thanks, as always, for taking the
time…
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