A late Rayan Cherki goal helped Manchester City squeak past Nottingham Forest at the City Ground and keep up the pressure at the top of the Premier League table. The French international applied the finishing touch to a well worked set piece routine, thrashing the ball in at the near post with his right foot […]
A late Rayan Cherki goal helped Manchester City squeak past Nottingham Forest at the City Ground and keep up the pressure at the top of the Premier League table.
The French international applied the finishing touch to a well worked set piece routine, thrashing the ball in at the near post with his right foot from the edge of the box after Phil Foden’s corner was knocked down by Josko Gvardiol.
Tijjani Reijnders opened the scoring for City earlier in the second half with fourth Premier League goal (once again assisted by Cherki) before Omari Hutchinson drew the home side level.
It looked like it was heading towards a point a piece before Cherki struck to earn City the win. Arsenal and Aston Villa’s victories mean the Blue remain in second place, two points behind the Gunners and a point ahead of third place Villa.
Here are three things we learned as Pep Guardiola’s team won again:
The Pep roulette is a thing of the past
City have made just three changes to their starting XI in the last eight Premier League games, the fewest of any team in the division.
Gone are the days where City would chop and change every game with three or four changes; the alterations to Guardiola’s lineup are few and far between now he’s figured out who he trusts.
The squad is fairly thin at the moment with John Stones, Oscar Bobb and Mateo Kovacic injured, Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri at AFCON and Rodri only making his first squad appearance back from injury against Forest.
So there’s an element of the City boss not having much choice in terms of selection, but it is the case that Nathan Ake, Savinho, Rico Lewis and Abdukodir Khusanov have been fit the entire time but haven’t started a single Premier League match in ages.
Guardiola knows which players he fully trusts and who are in good form, and at the moment, they are the only ones he’s trusting to play from the off.
Cherki will become Pep’s superweapon
The City boss has worked with many technically gifted players in his career. Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, David Silva, Toni Kroos and Kevin de Bruyne are amongst them, and there’s every chance that Cherki will retire sitting at the same table as those players.
One thing he already has above all of those players is two footedness. The 22-year-old seems to prefer dribbling with his left foot, but often chooses to pass, cross and certainly shoot with his right foot.
Of his six City goals so far in all competitions including the FIFA Club World Cup, five of them have come with his right foot. He has the tools, and he’s showcasing them impressively.
He will, however, need to improve off the ball. He’s ok defensively, but Guardiola will demand both more running and more defensive quality contributions from him.
He doesn’t yet look comfortable in a wide role and that’s something he’ll need to improve on for the benefit of the team. Cherki can certainly thrive there – he has the dribbling and crossing ability to become an excellent winger on either side.
But the signs are promising. He’s taken to City like a duck to water, and will only improve under Guardiola’s mentorship.
City don’t need everyone at their best anymore to win
Last season, certainly at this time of the year, it felt like City needed all of the stars to align in order to be able to win a game.
Now, they can scrape a win over the line whilst still playing poorly, such is the belief and mentality within the ranks that has been instilled over the course of the beginning of the season.
At the back, Ruben Dias and Nico O’Reilly were poor for a lot of the game, whilst Gvardiol could’ve done a lot better on the goal.
Nico Gonzalez looked leggy at times, Bernardo Silva wasn’t great and Phil Foden had his worst game in a while after a run of good form.
Even the players who did largely have good games had their poor moments. Guardiola admitted that with a performance like that last season City would have lost the game “10 times out of 10.”
But now, City seem to know and accept when they’re not playing well, and be able to adapt to play in a more pragmatic way to get a win over the line.
Stuff like that whilst not being sustainable over a long period of time is a sure fire sign that City can win the league; all the best teams find a way to win games when not playing well and that’s what City did against Forest.
Category: General Sports
