Yet another disappointing result for Manchester City.
On Wednesday night, the Sky Blues were held to a 2-2 by Monaco at Stade Louis II in the Champions League, despite leading twice, only to concede a penalty in the final minute.
Let’s start with the positives for the Citizens, namely Erling Braut Håland, who scored two magnificent goals in the Principality, taking his tally to 52 goals in just 50 Champions League appearances.
He has reached that landmark so quickly that, as noted by BBC Match of the Day, he has to be compared to clubs, not players, having scored more goals in his first 50 Champions League outings than Panathinaikos, CSKA Moscow, Celtic, Galatasaray, Beşiktaş, Club Brugge, Lille, Anderlecht and Dinamo Zagreb… we could go on!
Despite these exploits, dating back to last season, Pep Guardiola’s team have now won only four of ten league phase fixtures, despite winning 28 of 36 group stage games beforehand.
A few donning all black on Wednesday night did not cover themselves in glory, giving Guardiola some big selection decisions ahead of Sunday’s tricky trip to Brentford, so should he leave out arguably his most trusted lieutenant?
Nico González's difficult night in Monaco
Just as Manchester City were seemingly set to pick up all three points, les Monégasques were gifted a route back into the game.
As the clock was about to hit 90, a Monaco free-kick played into the box found Eric Dier but, as he headed the ball towards goal, Nico González came charging in and kicked the England defender in the face.
After a very long VAR consultation, referee Jesús Gil Manzano pointed to the spot and, to the surprise of many, Dier himself stepped up, sending Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way and ensuring it finished 2-2.
More broadly, since arriving from Porto on deadline day in the winter for £50m, Nico has struggled to make an impact in sky blue.
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Despite his compatriot Rodri’s continued injury issues, the la Masia academy graduate has started only 13 Premier League or Champions League games since debuting in February, deputising at Wolves on the opening day and against Burnley on Saturday.
Nevertheless, for someone who arrived for such a huge amount of money, and with impressive pedigree behind him, he is yet to consistently deliver, his only league goal for the club coming against Bournemouth in May, not that this is what he’s in the team for.
In summary, Nico is in danger of becoming the next Kalvin Phillips, signed for £50m to alleviate the burden on Rodri, before being cast aside and forgotten about, but there is another Manchester City player, who has made over 400 appearances for the club, who is at risk of losing his place in the team.
Pep must consider benching 'world class' Man City star
The Citizens’ trip to Stade Louis II this week evoked memories of their only previous visit to the Principality in March 2017, dumped out on away goals after a thrilling 6-6 aggregate draw.
That Monaco team, who would go on to reach the Champions League semi-finals and win the club’s only Ligue 1 title since 2000, contained Kylian Mbappé, Radamel Falcao, Fabinho, Benjamin Mendy, João Moutinho, Tiémoué Bakayoko, Thomas Lemar and a certain Bernardo Silva.
The Portuguese winger moved to Manchester for £43.5m the following summer, making 415 appearances for the club to date, winning 17 major honours to date, but he did not enjoy a happy return to the French Riviera.
The table below documents his statistics from Wednesday night’s draw.
Touches
70
8th
Shots on target
1
7th
xG
0.07
10th
Accurate passes
49
9th
Key passes
1
13th
Duels contested
6
14th
Duels won
1
26th
Possession lost
12
4th
Sofascore rating
6.0
29th
As the table notes, despite registering plenty of touches, Silva did not do a lot with the ball.
He lost possession on 12 occasions, only Phil Foden of Man City players did so more, also losing five of the six duels he contested, meaning he still has no goals and just one assist to his name this season.
Speaking on Sky Sports News in 2023, one content creator labelled Silva “world class”, while Ben Littlemore of Transfermarkt argued last year that he was Man City’s most important player.
In Guardiola’s managerial career, Silva is the player he has picked most, 34 times above Kevin De Bruyne who is second on the list, but now might be time to start phasing out the 31-year-old.
On the bench on Wednesday, the Citizens had both Oscar Bobb and Savinho, with Jérémy Doku starting on the opposite flank, all of whom offer a lot more dynamism and direct attacking play than Silva, emphasising why two of that trio should be in the team to take on Brentford come Sunday afternoon.