We Need To Talk About Riyad Mahrez

When Riyad Mahrez signed for Manchester City in July 2018 after a prolonged pursuit he became the Club’s most expensive player ever at £60 million.

Pep Guardiola had courted Mahrez for some time believing he would add speed and depth to our already exciting wing play. Indeed the prospect of seeing Mahrez in our blue was interesting to all fans because he had achieved acclaim as a counter attacking midfielder for Leicester, particularly as the stand out player in their team which unexpectedly won the title in 2015/16. At Leicester we were used to seeing Mahrez break with the ball at speed and quickly launch it for Vardy to run onto.

Whilst City already had two fantastic wingers in Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling there was also the acknowledgement that greater competition for those roles may drive those two onto greater things. But at City there is a strong viewpoint from the fans that Mahrez has so far failed to sparkle – that he has underwhelmed since joining and has not looked a shadow of Sane and Sterling.

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I must say that I need to declare an interest in this debate too because at times I find Mahrez infuriating. His propensity to always want to come inside just seems clearly signposted to every defender. His reluctance to hit the ball with purpose into space early has restricted some of our lightening breaks and generally he seems half hearted in his ball recovering duties.

However I am willing to accept that my eyes may have been deceived and Mahrez may be making a far bigger contribution to our season than I have given him credit for. So far in 2018/19 season across all competitions he has played 34 games, scoring 9 goals and assisting 10 times. That is an impressive array of statistics for any player – especially one where there seems to be consensus that he is underperforming!

His current season performance is actually on a par with previous years, if not actually a little better. In 2017/18 he played a total of 41 games, scoring 13 goals and assisting 13. In 2016/17 he played 48 games and scored 10 and assisted 7. So Mahrez is being exactly what our Club thought he would be.

There have been some suggestions from his camp that he is unhappy at the amount of playing time, but that does not seem to be borne out by the data. His playing time is likely to be the most he has had if he continues to be injury free.

The City fans seem to have issues with his performance level, but what we should remember is that he is making a significant transition from a counter attacking team to a team which is always on the front foot looking to score. That will take time for him to adjust and if we are to be accurate we should remember both Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane have taken around 12 months to acclimatise to the demands of Pep Guardiola.

But if I am willing to accept Mahrez is actually playing better than I tend to think, then it also stands to reason that the Algerian Mahrez fanboys who crusade for the player on social media may also need to accept his workrate and performance levels need to improve if he is to cement a regular starting spot in our side.

So perhaps we all need to cut Mahrez some slack. He is performing well in a City shirt and will most likely get better. Over the coming weeks we should expect to see him get some more game time and if he delivers a similar rate of scoring and assists then we will all be happy. If the season pans out the way we hope then the penalty miss at Anfield will be a footnote to our success and not the defining moment of our year.