Fabian Delph Captains Impressive England Side to Victory

Manchester City’s versatile midfielder Fabian Delph captained England last night

There was something comforting about watching Fabian Delph for England last night. This was a player who has received his share of indignation on social media since he left Aston Villa for Manchester City over 3 years ago. The Villa fans felt he was a snake because he initially turned down the approaches and pledged his allegiance to Villa, before reconsidering. He said the reconsidering was brought by the realisation he needed to put the financial future of his family first.

At Manchester City his career has been interrupted by a succession of niggly injuries which have restricted his first team appearances at the very moments he seemed to be cementing his place in the side. But from each knock back Delph has returned. He looks significantly fitter at age 28 – 29 next week – than he has in his career to date. He seems to have taken every possible piece of learning from Manchester City and Guardiola on board.

This level of focus and commitment by Delph has been matched by his infectious enthusiasm. He is reportedly a well liked member of the first team squad and has formed part of a Yorkshire collective within the side, comprising Delph, John Stones and Kyle Walker. Fans got to experience some of this personality during the Amazon All or Nothing series as Delph contributed to many of the most memorable scenes.

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So watching Delph last night was comforting. Assured in the knowledge of the journey Delph has taken to earn this opportunity to captain his national side, it was comforting to see all of that receive a reward with the honour to follow in some esteemed footsteps.

During the match, Delph patrolled the midfield with guile and hunger. He sprayed a series of high quality passes and was responsible for the creation of the 3rd goal. He mopped up across the backline, linking the defence and midfield. He even found the time to make several crunching tackles to retrieve the ball. At least one of those tackles made me suspect he had sustained an injury – which given the injury to Benjamin Mendy – would be disastrous to Manchester City at this stage of the season.

So it was comforting to see Delph get his reward, comforting to see his performance which was Guardiola like in its precision and comforting he seemed to escape without injury.

Delph is approaching the final part of his Manchester City contract and it will be interesting to see if he has played himself towards a renewal or a move elsewhere.