10x Ball Lost, 50% Duels Lost: 6/10 Man City Man Is Now Pep's New Zinchenko

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Pep Guardiola said after last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest that his Manchester City team have “ten finals” to ensure they’ll be playing Champions League football next season.

Well, we’re no closer to finding out if the Sky Blues will secure a top-five finish after the first of these ten fixtures produced a stalemate.

On Saturday afternoon, the soon-to-be dethroned champions were held to a 2-2 draw by Brighton at the Etihad.

They led twice, Erling Braut Håland converting an early penalty before Omar Marmoush struck on the cusp of half-time, but an unfortunate own goal by Abdukodir Khusanov saw the Seagulls earn a first-ever Premier League point in East Manchester.

Ahead of the international break, this draw highlights a defensive conundrum in Guardiola’s team; something to ponder, not just before an FA Cup quarter-final at Bournemouth in a fortnight, but also as the Citizens look to reconfigure their squad long-term.

Indeed, it looks as if the former Barcelona boss may well have unearthed his next Oleksandr Zinchenko…

Oleksandr Zinchenko’s time at Manchester City

Zinchenko joined Manchester City from Russian Premier League side FC Ufa for a reported fee of £1.7m back in 2016, very much an unknown teenager at the time.

Zinchenko-Sterling-Cancelo-Jesus-Man-City

He was immediately loaned out to PSV Eindhoven, making 17 appearances for the Dutch giants, as Phillip Cocu’s team finished rock-bottom of their Champions League group and came third in the Eredivisie, so not the best season to be at Philips Stadion.

Upon his return to Manchester, everyone expected Zinchenko to be an attacking midfield option, but Guardiola had other ideas, with more than 90% of the Ukrainian’s appearances for the club coming at left-back.

Guardiola described him at left-back as “important” to how the team functions, adding that he possesses “incredible quality”.

Meantime, Neel Shelat of Breaking the Lines believed Zinchenko’s ‘ball progression’ and ‘importance in build-up’ makes up for his ‘defensive weakness’, James Robson of the Evening Standard described him as ‘outstanding’, while the Ukrainian himself admitted left-full-back may now be his “best position”.

His performances convinced Mikel Arteta to bring him to Arsenal for a reported fee of £30m, and almost all of his 85 appearances for the Gunners have come at left-back.

Now, does Guardiola face a similar conundrum but in reverse, with one of his full-backs potentially better off in midfield?

Man City’s new Zinchenko

Rico Lewis’ statistics from Saturday’s draw with Brighton leap off the page but not for the right reasons, losing 50% of his duels, relinquishing possession on ten occasions and contributing zero key passes. That led to a 6/10 match rating from Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News.

As noted by Bajkowski previously, Lewis has ‘struggled’ for consistency this season, used ‘infrequently’ in recent months, with Guardiola admitting he over-played the 20-year-old during the early part of this campaign.

Joe Bray of MEN, meanwhile, notes that Lewis’ ‘inexperience’ cost him against Real Madrid, while Jason Burt of the Telegraph believes his future could lie in midfield, thereby going on the opposite transition to Zinchenko.

So, let’s compare the two players’ respective Manchester City careers panned out.

Rico Lewis vs Oleksandr Zinchenko Man City career comparison
Statistics	Lewis	Zinchenko
Appearances	87	128
Minutes	5,828	9,365
Goals	4	2
Assists	9	12
Pass completion %	91.8%	89.1%
Progressive passes per 90	4.7	8.1
Shot-creating actions per 90	71	161
% of dribblers tackled	57.1%	51.6%
Interceptions per 90	0.79	1.3
Ball-recoveries per 90	4.6	5.7
Take on success %	47.6%	52.2%
Touches per 90	70	108
Statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt and FBref.com

As the table outlines, Zinchenko largely comes out on top when compared to Lewis, albeit the England international is still only 20 years old, meaning the vast majority of his appearances have come as a teenager.

Nevertheless, Lewis’ pass completion percentage is outstanding, currently ranked joint-seventh in the Premier League this season in this metric, while his chance creation and defensive metrics aren’t too bad either.

Nevertheless, his passing prowess suggests Lewis’ long-term future could be as a midfielder, which is certainly something for Guardiola to consider going forward.

All things considered, finding the best positional fit for the England international is proving something of a dilemma, much as it was with the aforementioned Zinchenko.