Manchester City have moved three points closer to Champions League qualification.
On Saturday afternoon, late goals from youngster Nico O’Reilly and then substitute Mateo Kovačić saw the Sky Blues snatch a 2-0 victory over Everton, as they visited Goodison Park for the 100th and final time.
This maintains the Citizens’ place in the Champions League positions, above Nottingham Forest, with a key clash against in-form Aston Villa to come on Tuesday.
Despite the victory, two Man City stalwarts did not impress, suggesting they could both be victims of the impending summer rebuild.
Kevin De Bruyne’s final matches for Manchester City
Last week, Kevin De Bruyne confirmed that he will be leaving Manchester City when his contract expires at the end of this season, having made over 400 appearances for the club, winning six Premier League titles and the Champions League, amongst many other honours.
In his first appearance since this announcement, Jamie Jackson of the Guardian reported that everyone inside the Etihad got the opportunity to ‘revel in the sublime talent’ that De Bruyne is, with the Belgian putting in a talisman performance as his team fought back from 2-0 down to beat Crystal Palace 5-2 a week ago.
However, this Saturday, the 33-year-old did not impress quite as much, with Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News reporting that the Belgian ‘got worse as the game went on’ having failed ‘to make the decisive breakthrough’ before being replaced by Manuel Akanji with two minutes remaining.
However, De Bruyne may not be the only Man City veteran heading for the exit door come the summer, with another multi-Premier League champion in his thirties suggesting he is also not the player he once was.
After De Bruyne: Man City’s next star on his way out
In that previously sighted Simon Bajkowski player rating piece for the MEN, he described Bernardo Silva’s 5/10 display at Goodison as ‘too slow’, adding that he ‘couldn’t make anything happen’.
The Portuguese midfielder’s statistics don’t make for good reading either.
|
Bernardo Silva vs Everton in numbers |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Statistics |
Silva |
Match rank |
|
Minutes played |
90 |
=1st |
|
Touches |
67 |
7th |
|
Passing accuracy |
89% |
12th |
|
Shots |
Zero |
=10th |
|
Dribbles attempted |
1 |
=10th |
|
% of ground duels won |
20% |
23rd |
|
Possession lost |
9 |
=11th |
|
All statistics courtesy of SofaScore |
||
As the table outlines, Silva did not impress against Everton, losing possession nine times as well as four of his five ground duels, mustering no shots and attempting just a solitary dribble, which isn’t what Pep Guardiola would want from his winger.
This though, is not a one-off, given that Silva’s powers have certainly started to wane this season, scoring just three goals and registering only four assists across all competitions, having accumulated 11 of both last time round, a big drop-off.
Zak Garner-Purkis of Forbes believes that the 30-year-old ‘has been one of the main malfunctioning components’ as Manchester City have fallen below their own lofty expectations this season, also stating that his ‘aging legs’ have been a key factor behind the team’s ‘sudden decline’.
Meantime, James Holland of TEAMtalk claims that Silva will depart Man City this summer, with Barcelona ‘eyeing’ a move for his services.
Thus, with Manchester City set for a summer rebuild, Kyle Walker and De Bruyne are already on the way out, and Silva could be poised to follow them out the exit door.
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