Ranking 10 City Players with Biggest Point to Prove in Preseason
Manchester City's wealth of footballing talent means that sometimes they are a bit too good for their own good.
While most Premier League players had the past two months off, City had eight of their XI from their last Premier League match see action in the 2014 World Cup. Of those eight, four of them (Sergio Aguero, Pablo Zabaleta, Martin Demichelis and Vincent Kompany) went deep into the tournament.
Players with international profiles that large do not normally have much to prove. But City's second Premier League title in three years was, like the one they earned two years earlier, won on the season's final day.
That is a nicer way of saying that City almost screwed the season up badly.
So City have a number of players, some established and some on the come, who have more to prove this preseason than you might think.
Certainly, City boss Manuel Pellegrini will be watching the progress of these players carefully as the season opener against Newcastle United at St James' Park looms.
10. Yaya Toure
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Yaya Toure must answer questions this preseason for Manchester City. Unlike many of the men on this list, though, none of those questions is about his play.
Toure scored 20 goals for City in the 2013-14 season. His steady presence and prolific scoring papered over many of the hairline cracks in City's foundation, both defensive (Joe Hart, Martin Demichelis) and offensive (Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo).
Unfortunately, nearly every report surrounding Toure this offseason has discussed how badly he wants to leave City.
"Yaya Toure is due for talks with Manchester City over his future before the club’s second match of their summer tour of the United States on 27 July," wrote Jamie Jackson for The Guardian. "Once in America the club will discuss with Toure a series of off-message comments that appear to point to the midfielder wanting to leave or seeking an improved contract."
Toure's answers to City's questions will almost surely determine his future with the club—if he has one.
9. Sergio Aguero
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As with Yaya Toure, the questions Sergio Aguero needs to answer have little to do with his play.
When Aguero is fit, he is one of the most lethal strikers on the planet. The trouble is, as the Argentine national team could attest, he is not always fit.
Aguero scored 17 goals in 23 Premier League appearances for City last season (20 of them starts). It is not hyperbole to suggest Aguero could score 30 in a fully healthy season.
For this reason, City might for the most part stash Aguero on the bench this preseason. When and if he does play, though, it will be vital for Aguero to leave the pitch under his own power.
8. Alvaro Negredo
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Alvaro Negredo's first few months at Manchester City were the stuff legends are made of.
He scored in two of City's first three Premier League matches, had a hat trick against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League and generally bullied City's competition every chance he had.
Then Negredo took a spill in a meaningless Capital One Cup match against West Ham United at the end of January and did not score another goal the rest of the season.
Per Chris McKenna of the Daily Star, transfer whispers surround Negredo now.
"Alvaro Negredo, Matija Nastasic and Javi Garcia could all find themselves sold on as the Premier League champions face a squad selection headache this season," McKenna wrote.
There is no way Negredo's name would be in that discussion if the second half of his 2013-14 campaign had at all resembled the first half.
7. Jack Rodwell
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Speaking of City players who might be on their way out of Manchester, let's check in on perpetually injured midfielder Jack Rodwell.
"City are yet to officially open talks with any interested parties, but a host of teams are jostling to land the England international, either on loan or on a permanent basis," wrote Graeme Bailey for Sky Sports.
To some extent, Rodwell's predicament is not his fault. Even healthy, Rodwell was never apt to supplant David Silva, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure or Jesus Navas in the City midfield. James Milner and Samir Nasri can surely sympathize.
If Rodwell remains City property, though, he will need to do some spectacular things in the preseason to put himself back in the picture for Manuel Pellegrini.
6. Vincent Kompany
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Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany is most likely the first name on Manuel Pellegrini's team sheet for any match the club must win. The questions Kompany must answer this preseason are not about whether he is a starting center-back. He is.
But there are questions nonetheless.
How will Kompany bounce back from Belgium's quarterfinal loss to Argentina in the World Cup? Where many Premier League players got rest this summer, Kompany will end up getting precious little down time this offseason.
If City do in fact secure the services of Eliaquim Mangala, how will Kompany mesh with the new man?
And can Kompany, who missed 10 Premier League matches last season, stay on the pitch more in 2014-15?
5. Samir Nasri
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Manchester City believe in Samir Nasri. In the coming years, we will find out if that belief was warranted.
"Samir Nasri has signed a new five-year contract with Manchester City," a Press Association report in The Guardian noted. "The 27-year-old France midfielder has committed his future to the club until 2019 after enjoying something of a renaissance under Manuel Pellegrini last season, when he scored 11 goals."
No sane football observer would question Nasri's talent. When he is healthy and engaged, Nasri is capable of obscenely gorgeous displays of speed and skill. And Nasri's goal against West Ham United in City's Premier League clincher showed that the moment is rarely bigger than him.
But it was not that long ago that Nasri was buried on City's bench. Was he a victim of Roberto Mancini's erratic man management? Or was some of that blame rightfully on Nasri?
The five-year contract suggests that City think Nasri's difficult 2012-13 season is ancient history never to be repeated.
4. Martin Demichelis
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Martin Demichelis' 2013-14 season was nearly a perfect inverse of the one turned in by Alvaro Negredo.
Where Negredo came out fast, then broke down in the home stretch, Demichelis got caught in the pack out of the gate only to break free and finish the last half of the race strong.
Whether City sign Eliaquim Mangala, Vincent Kompany's injury tendencies and the realities of City's annual pursuit of four trophies mean that Demichelis is likely to play significant minutes for City in 2014-15.
Was Demichelis' composed finish last season proof that he has his role at City figured out? Or was it just a really well-timed hot streak?
3. Stevan Jovetic
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City made four very expensive signings in the summer of 2013, and three of them paid big dividends. That is a terrific batting average in any business.
Alvaro Negredo, Fernandinho and Jesus Navas all played big roles in City's second Premier League title run in three seasons.
The fourth pricey acquisition, Steven Jovetic, played almost no part.
Three goals in 13 Premier League appearances was not the return City hoped for from their £22 million outlay.
Given the amount of rest Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko figure to get this offseason, Jovetic will probably get numerous chances to impress manager Manuel Pellegrini.
Jovetic needs a few goals this summer to prove that he can be counted on this coming season.
2. Matija Nastasic
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Jackson Browne said it best: "Say a prayer for the pretender, who started out so young and strong only to surrender."
Matija Nastasic is 21 years old, but in the past two seasons at Manchester City he has had a full career's worth of ups and downs.
For a time, Nastasic was the only City signing from the summer of 2012 who amounted to anything in sky blue. Scott Sinclair, Maicon, Javi Garcia and Jack Rodwell were lemons, but Nastasic emerged in the second half of the 2012-13 season to form a terrifying partnership with Vincent Kompany.
Nastasic was the presumptive starter alongside Kompany to begin the 2013-14 season. But he sustained a nasty injury in a preseason tournament that cost him his starting place. Then he picked up a knee injury that all but ended his season.
Nastasic made only 11 Premier League starts last season, 10 fewer than he did in 2012-13, after beginning that season on the bench.
City can sign Eliaquim Mangala and hope that Martin Demichelis is as good as he looked at the end of last season. But any plans City have of seriously chasing four trophies have to involve a healthy Nastasic finding his form again.
Unless, you know, they sell him.
1. Joe Hart
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With apologies to Bill Clinton and James Carville, for City, it's the goalkeeping that matters.
Yes, Sergio Aguero missed time last season. So did Vincent Kompany and David Silva and Jesus Navas. It would have been nice to have all of those players fit all the time. But that is not football.
Besides, City's ridiculous squad depth means even two or three injuries to first-choice players are survivable.
But very few teams can survive seeing their healthy, previously elite goalkeeper come apart the way Joe Hart did early last season.
Hart's howlers at Cardiff City, Aston Villa, Chelsea and elsewhere inspired the normally unflappable Manuel Pellegrini to break character (h/t Simon Bird of the Mirror): "I'm concerned because we are losing too many points away."
Indeed, City might have won the Premier League weeks earlier had Hart turned in even a competent first half of the 2013-14 season.
City recently signed Willy Caballero as an insurance policy against further lapses from Hart. One imagines that Pellegrini's leash on Hart will be short in 2014-15.
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