3 Takeaways from Manchester City Pre-Season
By Duncan Kwok
Pre-season is a time of experimentation, getting new players up to speed and allowing some youngsters to shine, Manchester City’s Pre-season left fans with a lot of things to process. We try to dissect the information for all of you out there.
1.The Future Is Bright For Manchester City
For so long, Manchester City’s Academy has been slammed for not using youth players. If pre-season was anything to go by, Pep Guardiola will have no excuses if he doesn’t integrate promising youngsters such as Brahim Diaz and Phil Foden into the first-team. Both were impressive in pre-season with Diaz bagging a stylish goal against Real Madrid and Foden looked impressive against Manchester United, with Guardiola describing him as a special player. Manchester City Chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak has said that he wants Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz to take the leap into the first-team for the upcoming season. Time will tell if this indeed happens but the future definitely looks bright for Manchester City.
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2. Ederson will need time to settle.
Expectations were always going to be over the top for Ederson’s debut season at Manchester City, those expectations might just have to be lowered a little. In the pre-season match against Manchester United, Ederson made a massive mistake coming off his line which resulted in Romelu Lukaku scoring for Manchester United, Ederson’s mistake would have sent Manchester City fans into despair thinking about Claudio Bravo’s disastrous season and how Ederson looked anything but the man who was going to be City’s goalkeeper for the next decade. However, he did improve as pre-season went on and looked more assured in goal, while even showcasing his distribution skills with a fantastic pass to Sergio Aguero in the Tottenham match. Given time to settle, Ederson might just surpass everyone’s expectation of him.
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3.Eliaquim Mangala and Samir Nasri should be allowed to stay at Manchester City
The two outcasts of Manchester City should be allowed to stay, Eliaquim Mangala looked impressive in pre-season, strong in the tackle and comfortable in the air while Nasri looked at his illustrious best, pinging passes all over the ground. Mangala, in my opinion, should definitely be given a second chance, he was impressive on loan at Valencia and could be a useful backup option and Nasri with his attitude problems should be given a chance in the first couple of games before the end of the transfer window, after that a decision should be made by Pep. Who knows maybe these two outcasts will turn into stars for Manchester City.
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