Season’s player ratings

Some City fans may well have easily partied way more than I have over the last few, AMAZING weeks for our football club but I can assure you that I’ve done enough to feel fairly wiped out as I tinker with this sub-heading the morning after the Manchester parade.

It’s been hard to catch your breath at times, don’t you think; as we go from one trophy-lift & celebrations, to-soon-wondering how we’ll fair in the next challenge; then-seeing that trophy lift, celebrating once more before repeating the whole experience for a THIRD time?!

Wowzers!

And it doesn’t stop here for me 🎻 as I start to pull together weeks & months of prep to ‘bang out’ my usual, close season postings, starting with this one.

So…season over - how did I rate our players & manager?

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 feel, particularly this time round, that I need to emphasise that this is a very fluctuating system. As with other seasons, some players start well and then ‘drop-off’ whist others begin slowly and improve as the season progresses; slowly dragging up a lowly score-rating.

Others, as you might expect, are very ‘up & down’ and their scores move up & down the scale accordingly and, so, any late season drop-off in form might make their final rating look lower than you might expect following an-otherwise decent-enough campaign.

But I think this season has been even more-so in all of those regards and has, for me, been a little difficult to measure at times; especially in the final few weeks of the season [trying to give a true reflection of their whole season].

Ederson

Solid for the most part; a few wobbles and, therefore, the usual doubts from both City and non-City fans alike. But we also saw some superb goalkeeping from the Brazilian, particularly towards the end. Yep…sounds like a typical Season from our No.1. He slipped to a still-decent 7 at one stage but I thought he finished the season well. 7.5/10

(Last season’s rating: 7/10)

Stefan Ortega

A couple of expected negative moments from a back-up stopper with limited gametime but, in large, what a good reserve keeper we have on our books. Good first season. 7/10

(Last season’s rating: N/A)

Aymeric Laporte

Not used as much as he would have liked, some of that-being injury related but is also the reason he’s likely to be leaving us in the summer, but a solid defender, as always, and largely solid performances whenever he stepped back into ‘the 11’. 7/10

(Last season’s rating: 8/10)

Joao Cancelo

Rarely a ‘happy chappy’ in general and we seldom saw, this season, the best that he CAN produce before his ‘fall out’ with his manager. 6/10

(Last season’s rating: 7/10)

John Stones

WHAT a season for the England man! When the club posted their player of the season vote I gave it, quite rightly in my opinion, to another player. However, that voting system comes out with a number of games to spare and John got even better after that. He ends as my player of the season not only for his fantastic performances but for the way he’s adapted to what his manager has asked. 8.5+/10 (and I’ll explain the “+” shortly)

(Last season’s rating: 7.5/10)

Josh Wilson Esbrand

Made two appearances in the Champions League and got 7/10 in both games from me.

(Last season’s rating: N/A)

Kyle Walker

A real mixed bag from the England right-wing back. He missed a good chunk of the start of the season with a groin / lower abdominal injury for which he had surgery on and up to that point, I had him on 6/10. He was then in & out of the side a little, from memory, until he disappeared for a good time but, on this occasion, without any suggestion that he was injured or lacking the necessary fitness levels.

His manager, eventually and when repeatedly asked about Kyle lack of appearances, admitted that for all his good attributes, Kyle lacks the adaptability required for his system-plans to push inside as an inverted wing-back / midfield support.

Following a controversial incident in a bar resulting in alleged tensions with his partner; I suspect Pep had concerns about his focus / mentality too…and I often wondered, before all of this, if Kyle was one of those he had in mind when he referred to some staff in his camp being like “Happy Flowers” (more on that to come).

Soon after Guardiola’s words about his limited versatility, Kyle came back with a bang and put in some top performances; dragging his score-rating up from 6 to 7/10. However, reduced minutes, once more, lead to some lesser performances before his body started to let him down once again right towards the end of our long campaign; where he told press officers who asked about his fitness that he was, “…getting old”. 6.5/10

(Last season’s rating: 7/10)

Manuel Akanji

This ‘under the radar’ summer signing slipped in at City like a dry foot sliding into a newly-purchased sock (yes…I may well have-had a little heatstroke when I thought that one up). Simply put, he became Mr dependable and just when we needed him most; as other defenders appeared to take turns being out with niggles. Is Pep psychic as well as all-round brilliant when he spotted this signing opportunity?

Almost consistently 7/10 but then improved that rating in the last third of the season, as the central defender’s performances got even better AND showed his adaptability with largely good-covering on both sides of the defence when occasionally needed. Even in the F.A. Cup final when there was a breakdown in communication between him & Ederson he went on to produce a fine display in my opinion. And in the Champions League, it’s easy to miss or forget about his perfectly-weighted pass to Bernardo Silva – who then passed to Rodri via a little deflection – for the game’s one & only goal. 8/10

(Last season’s rating: N/A)

Nathan Ake

Excellent season from the Dutch international. Fate, it would seem and I believe, helped Nathan to continue his fine form us – if Joao Cancelo hadn’t-have ‘spat his dummy out’ and had, instead, got his head down and ‘done the business’; Nathan might have only played a ‘bit part’ and wouldn’t have gained the sort of terrific momentum we’ve seen from the 28-year-old. I clearly recall giving him my Man of the Match on more than one occasion.

He still has his little hamstring issues from time to time and, this season, they flared up towards the ‘business end’ of the footballing calendar. I felt really sorry from him – he’d done all the hard graft and appeared to be missing out of all the glory moments. I’m glad he made the Champions League final. 8/10…and a solid one / almost 8.5

(Last season’s rating: 7/10)

Rico Lewis

Good player and versatile. Still a little raw to say the least and sometimes gives me the feeling that he’s trying a little too hard; meaning that some of his intentions don’t quite come off. I think, with more time under Pep, we could well be looking at the perfect replacement for veteran Kyle…but one who CAN “invert” when asked to. 7/10

(Last season’s rating: N/A)

Ruben Dias

After having his gametime managed by Pep and his medical staff / physios following injury issues last season, Ruben slowly gathered momentum and proved to be the calm head often needed at the back. He doesn’t come across as a powerful, dominating figure in the heart of our defence but he’s very astute and I, for one, believe him to be a future captain. That slowly-built momentum saw a more-than-solid season from the 26-year-old and built his score-rating up accordingly as the season progressed. 8/10

(Last season’s rating: 6/10)

Sergio Gomez

Not many appearances – especially in the Prem – and a player who looked slightly better attacking the opposition than he did defending against them. And when I say slightly better attacking than he did defensively, I don’t think he is a defensive wing-back in any way, shape or form; so that isn’t much of a compliment from me, I suppose. A ‘cover player’ at best. 5.5/10

(Last season’s rating: N/A)

Barnardo Silva

What a player and I hope he doesn’t leave us in the summer. Started the season on fire and that blaze continued right up to the World Cup, where I issued a “half time assessment (click to see that report should you wish)” and gave the Portuguese international an 8/10. And that score got even higher at one stage and that was despite those occasional games where all of his powers aren’t necessarily on show but, where, he still often manages a 7/10’er. I’m sure he flirted with a 9 at one, brief stage on my sheet. Waned a little towards the end but gets an absolute solid 8/10

(Last season’s rating: 8.5/10)

Cole Palmer

Very limited minutes for most of the season but when he eventually managed some games on the left of our attack, he did very well indeed, I thought. Just like Rico, he’s still a little green, of course. 7/10

(Last season’s rating: 7.5/10)

Ilkay Gundogan

As seems often the case with the German international, while some other players decline slightly as the season comes to its various conclusions and legs begin to tire; Ilkay steps up and comes up with some fabulous performances AND, indeed, fabulous moments in front of goal. Started the season as he often does too; in & out of the side and producing those “Mr 7/10” displays. In fact, that’s what score he was sitting on from me almost half-way through the season. Later displays pushed his score up to a very much deserved 8/10

(Last season’s rating: 8/10)

Jack Grealish

Awful. Truly rotten performances from the England attacking winger in the first third of the season. And when tagged on to a very underwhelming / disappointing first season; I have to admit that I sometimes stared into the eyes of Jack and didn’t see a player who could turn his abilities into top match performances…I really couldn’t. Got a little better just before the break in domestic play in November. Was this a sign of improving things to come?

Well, of course, we all know the answer to that now. Just as a caterpillar turns into a butterfly; jack unleashed his wings and flew like crazy! A massive well done him…and same goes to his manager too 100%. After being as low as 4.5/10 very early on, Jack skimmed the bottom surface of 8.5 at one stage. Settled on an 8 for a good while and despite just ever so slightly dipping towards the very end, stayed on that score for me. If he’d have started the season much better and maintained it, he could have been challenging for player of the season. I never thought for one second back in August 2022 that I’d be saying that in June 2023. 8/10

(Last season’s rating: 5.5/10)

Kalvin Phillips

With fleeting appearances ‘here ‘n’ there’ - and SO very infrequently as they were - there was no way the 27-year-old could gather any momentum. Up to his Premier League start - and full game - against Chelsea on 21^st May, Kalvin was sitting on 4.5/10 from me for a good-long while following ‘bits & pieces’ towards the end of games. Thankfully, he looked like he both relished and grabbed a hold of that start and subsequent appearances. 5.5/10

(Last season’s rating: N/A)

Kevin De Bruyne

Similar to Kyle in some ways, it was a bit of a mixed bag from the Belgium international and Manchester City hero. Excellent – quiet – explosive – ineffective…not necessarily in that order but all before he appeared to get withdrawn by his boss. He had his usually injury periods too, of course, which both he-himself and we are all used to by now.

That same manager sure does like to push the now-veteran midfielder, doesn’t he? The soon-to-be 32-year-old always comes off the pitch looking like he’s just tried to keep up with Usain Bolt but Pep often seems to think he can squeeze more productive play from ‘our Kev’. He reached an 8.5 at one stage and, from memory, stayed there for a while. I think the extra-long season got to him in the end and he, possibly a little more than the others, will be hoping for a flippin’ good rest over the coming weeks. Faded a little towards the end but gets a solid 8/10

(Last season’s rating: 9/10)

Maximo Perrone

Made two appearances – one in the Premier League and one in the F.A. Cup and did just fine. 6/10

(Last season’s rating: N/A)

Phil Foden

No, I’m not gonna used the “mixed” word for a third time. Perhaps…”slightly disappointing”? Had a worryingly quiet start to the season; improved slightly amid a few more quieter games and although, like Kevin, the effort is always there; something just wasn’t quite clicking for the Stockport-born lad.

There was a media-filmed bust up with his partner whilst on holiday just before he came back to training for this season and then two-third’s-way into our campaign, Phil needed surgery to remove his appendix; resulting in many weeks of recovery. I think his focus was a little lost at times and a lack of momentum hindered him too. Finished the season with a good run of games under his belt and did well, with a score from me that I think sums his season up perfectly. 7/10

(Last season’s rating: 8/10)

Riyad Mahrez

Mr Roller-Coaster has had yet ANOTHER Mr Roller-Coaster season. He started off so-very poorly – far worse than both Phil & Jack – that he was on an alarmingly-low 3.5/10 from me! Slowly, he built that up to a near-half-time 5. Then, in true Riyad style and, I tend to think also because his manager found that hard-to-find switch in the player’s befuddled head, Riyad BOOMED for a time! Then he slipped once more and disappeared once again. 6.5/10

(Last season’s rating: 7.5/10)

Rodri

This is so difficult because I am serious when I say that without the Spanish defensive midfielder and his consistency throughout the 3,000+ game-minutes he played, I don’t think we’d have won the Premier League, let-alone his game winner in the Champions League final. I actually voted for him on City’s website as my Player of the Season. He didn’t win that.

But as the season came to its various conclusions, I just…JUST about put John Stones ahead of ‘our Rodders’; hence the 8.5+ rating that I gave John. The sheer number of games played by Rodri finally started to take its toll and regular 8+/10 performances dipped slightly to 7s whilst, at the same time, John, despite a bit of an injury scare near the end, produced some belters both in defence as well as midfield. The England man JUST about edged it at the very end. As for Rodders? 8.5/10 (without the +)

(Last season’s rating: 8/10)

Erling Haaland

How can I possibly not have Erling Haaland – the man who both broke records and scored goals left, right & centre – as my Player of the Season? Similarly, how can I possibly NOT give the man who scored 52 – that’s FIFTY-TWO – goals in a season 10/10? Simply put, he’s been utterly amazing but BECAUSE he’s a killer…a Terminator; he has contributed some of those goals – and assists it has to be noted also – while sometimes being a little anonymous / snuffed out / kept quiet and produced his fair share of 6, 6.5 & 7s as well as 8.5s, 9s as well as the odd 10.

Simply put, in terms of match performance scores, a solid 8/10 sums his season up perfectly for me…but with a one-knee bend and a bow of the head in recognition for the amazing goals and the amazing NUMBER of goals he scored for us too, of course! Does that make any sense? Answers on a postcard…

(Last season’s rating: N/A)

Julian Alvarez

A crackin’ back-up striker to Erling. If Haaland ever found himself sidelined for a time; I don’t know about other City fans but as long as Julian was available, I wouldn’t be overly concerned.

Limited minutes did sometimes appear to make him look a little rusty and not quite ‘in tune’ with his teammates but on other occasions, he looked every bit the World Cup winner he is. I also love the fact that he likes to have the odd crack at goal from distance to mix it up from our usual, close build-up play. 7/10

(Last season’s rating: N/A)

What a really strange season…

I think it was always going to be an odd one with a World Cup break almost slap-bang in the middle of it and without knowing exactly how; I expected it to disrupt us to some degree, as well as some of the other sides too, of course.

However, I actually don’t think it did a thing to change our fortunes for better OR for worse. I’d also like to slice our league campaign into very-approximate thirds, so-as-to illustrate exactly what I mean by that.

Early August to early October:

W W D W W D W W W

A crackin’ start, if not a little disappointing with-how-we-managed to-“only” draw away at both Newcastle United & Aston Villa; after going 1-0 up in the North East but being a little tactically naive heading into that match also; whilst allowing a struggling Villa side, at the time, to gain confidence and come at us far too much.

 

Mid-October to mid-November and up to the World Cup break:

L W W W L…

…and then Post-World Cup all ‘lumped together’ as another “third” of our season:

…W D W L W W L

 

Finally, from mid-February onwards to the end of the season. For me, it all started at home to Aston Villa, following not only a very frustrating performance and hammer-blow defeat away at Spurs (AGAIN!) but also very soon after charges from the Premier League came out about alleged breaches of financial rules. It’s was like, following-on from all of that negativity, the team then hit the spring-board perfectly whilst also wearing a jet-pack on each of their collective backs:

W W D W W W W W W W W W W W 🏆 W D L

What irritated me from the point of…if you’re in a position to talk regularly about football on the TV and / or radio, for flip’s sake at least research your subject matter!

Time and time and time again I heard from a whole host of pundits, right up to and including 20^th May 2023, say that we came back from the World Cup ‘firing’; alluding to THAT being the pivotal ‘trigger point’ in our season when we got our act together. Well…errr…no. Up to that second Aston Villa clash in February, we’d played 7 league games post-World Cup break and won 4; losing 2 and drawing 1, which is around a 57.1%-win rate.

This is my point about this being a strange season - we were doing well in the two-major cups but, aside from a good start to our season, we didn’t REALLY get our act together in terms of consistency in the league until as late as mid-February! Crazy when you consider how it turned out! Even Manyoo were in danger of overtaking us at one point, I clearly recall!

Furthermore, on top of the Premier League charges was an underlying issue that appeared to be affecting the players and their performances which, for a while, a lot of City fans were trying to work out for themselves what-exactly it was; myself included. But in January 2023 when our jittery form from-before the international break continued well into the new-calendar year; Pep broke his silence about too many people within the club being like, “Happy flowers”, he called them.

He’d had a fall-out too with Joao Cancelo about a lack of playing time and the Portuguese wing-back was fired out of the door to Bayern Munich on loan for the rest of the season. However, that wasn’t the only player Guardiola didn’t appear too happy with during our early 2022/23 campaign – both Riyad Mahrez & Kalvin Phillips came in for some public criticism for not looking after themselves and being slightly unfit and even a little overweight for his and his coaches’ liking. The Spanish boss also repeated, several times, that he knows he can get more from Kevin De Bruyne; another player who was dropped for a considerable time until the manager felt he’d done enough to regain a starting-11 slot. Even our Captain, Ilkay Gundogan, ‘wading in’ after a rather insipid performance and defeat away at Southampton in the League Cup in January; by saying that some of his team-mates displayed a lack of desire and the wrong attitude.

What the ‘eck was going on?!

I’ll say it again – it’s amazing to think what we’ve achieved this season when you take all of that into account…and I’ve not even mentioned the fact that this was the smallest squad under Pep’s tenure and all of the early-season, long-term injuries we were suffering with to key personnel.

Pep Guardiola

What can I possibly say that’s not already been said by many-a-pundit or fan? Well it’s this.

On cup wins alone this season, I would, of course, be giving our manager top marks. What HAS been said of Pep by various folk, is that he has the ability to improve so many players; whether that be from average / good to VERY good or very good to WORLD CLASS. I could list a number of players over the seasons but this piece is long enough…

However, for me, particularly this season, he gets top marks also for the way he got into so many player’s heads who, appeared at least, to have lost their focus earlier this season just gone. As I’ve already said, Pep looked like he was battling with a slightly dysfunctional squad, for a time, and it appeared as though it was affecting our performances…and most-definitely our consistency.

I’m not saying he did it alone – there are some influential & motivational players & staff in our ranks – but my WORD do I believe that he has a job secured in psychiatry should he ever want it and if he ever gives up football management (yeah, as if).

Some used to say similar about the legendary Joe Mercer – Pep is more than “just” a football manager… 10/10

(Last season’s rating: 9/10)

Thank you for taking the time to read – it’s been a long one, I know.

Coming up soon’ish and not necessarily in this order:

-      My season predictions results

-      A summer ‘ins & outs’ piece (either in one blog-posting or split into two)

-      Some blog-postings on our new kits as they get released (I know, we’ve released one already – I’m getting there…slowly)