Manchester City vs. Real Madrid: Complete Player-by-Player Breakdown
Manchester City and Real Madrid: Both UEFA Champions League foes and kindred spirits.
On Tuesday, the two clubs meet at the Etihad Stadium for the first leg of their semi-final tie in Europe's top tier. For Real Madrid, this is familiar territory; for Manchester City, not so much.
In many ways, these clubs are extremely different, but in 2015-16, their contradictory identities have been strikingly similar: powerful but vulnerable, explosive but flawed, capable of the sublime and the ridiculous.
Up and down, desperately unpredictable, Madrid and City have rumbled along in paradoxical fashion all season, but in keeping with their similar paths, both teams have experienced a recent upswing in form. City have won five of their seven games since losing March's Manchester derby; Real have won 11 of their 12 fixtures since losing the Madrid variety.
Now they're set to meet in the final four of the Champions League. Across the following slides, we break down how these two sides compare.
Notes
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In order for us to complete a head-to-head comparison across each position (right-back vs. right-back, left-back vs. left-back and so on) for this clash between Real Madrid and Manchester City, it was necessary to find a shape that best fits both sides.
Admittedly, that is a little problematic. For the bulk of the season, City's preferred shape has been a 4-2-3-1, whereas Madrid's has been a 4-3-3. Here, though, both sides are presented in a 4-3-3 to make the head-to-head comparisons practicable, each of the lineups selected with that in mind.
Additionally, despite both teams entering this clash with numerous concerns over the fitness of key players, as close to full-strength XIs as possible have been selected here, as the hunch and the hope is that all the stars will be available for this exciting matchup.
Goalkeepers
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Joe Hart
If Joe Hart and Keylor Navas got together privately at some point this week, you could imagine the pair of them sharing a knowing look, the message of it something like: "What have those blokes been doing in front of us this year?"
All season, Hart has been remarkably busy for the goalkeeper of an elite outfit, a fragile defence giving him little cover.
In the face of the onslaught, though, Hart has been as solid as ever. In the league, the Englishman has recorded 15 clean sheets—the fourth-best figure in Europe's top-five leagues, per Squawka—and as Lionel Messi would attest, Hart has a knack for being brilliant in the Champions League.
Season Grade: A
Keylor Navas
The picture above is essentially the story of Keylor Navas' season.
Behind a defence and a collective structure that has battled with cohesion and balance, Navas has bailed out his team-mates time and time again, his saves stunning, his consistency remarkable and his highlight reel in cinemas everywhere.
Such has been his excellence that the thought of David De Gea has been completely brushed aside in the Spanish capital—79 per cent of fans in a poll conducted by AS preferred Navas over De Gea—and despite playing in a team featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, Navas might just be Madrid's best player of the season.
Season Grade: A+
Right-Backs
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Bacary Sagna
From the periphery to the spotlight. From criticism to being cherished. For Bacary Sagna, it's been quite a turnaround.
After his move from Arsenal to Manchester City in 2014, Sagna didn't exactly hit the ground running. Behind Pablo Zabaleta, playing time was scarce. When he did play, he struggled. His move was viewed cynically, the motivations questioned. But not anymore.
With Zabaleta having battled with injury this season, Sagna has made the right-back post his own. Disciplined, durable, consistent and prepared to get his hands dirty, the Frenchman has been one of the few bright spots in a strangely brittle back four.
Season Grade: B+
Dani Carvajal
It's been an odd season for Dani Carvajal at Real Madrid.
When he's played, he's been superb—incisive, disciplined, attentive and a genuine threat on the ball—but that's been the problem: when he's played.
Despite being the club's standout right-back by a distance, Carvajal has been forced to share playing time with the extravagantly expensive but extremely flawed Danilo, whose €31.5 million price tag carries a political pressure for him to play.
Injuries haven't helped Carvajal, either, but he's expected to lineup against City on Tuesday. Given his impressive form since Zinedine Zidane took over from Rafa Benitez in January, he should have a significant impact on the match, charging down the right flank.
Season Grade: B+
Right-Sided Centre-Backs
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Vincent Kompany
It's a season surrounded by questions, lamentable ones: What if Vincent Kompany hadn't been injured? What if Manchester City had enjoyed continuity in defence? What if the team had leadership throughout? What if they didn't have to field Martin Demichelis? What if Nicolas Otamendi had benefitted from the presence of a complementary partner?
Those questions essentially define City's season, particularly in the Premier League, where Kompany's enforced absence is viewed as the key factor in the club's domestic underachievement.
When fit, the Belgian is supreme.
When fit.
Season Grade: B
Pepe
In 2015-16, Pepe has almost certainly been Real Madrid's best centre-back. That sentence jars, doesn't it?
At the beginning of the season, the Portuguese was expected to spend the campaign on the periphery, with Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane viewed as the superior combination. But it hasn't unfolded that way.
All season, Ramos has battled with injury and form, this perhaps his worst year at Madrid. Varane, meanwhile, has experienced a season of a certain stagnation.
As such, Pepe has played a far greater role than expected, and he has struck a consistency that the others haven't despite the fact he's likely approaching the end of his time at the Santiago Bernabeu.
However, the veteran remains susceptible to pacey forwards running at him. Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne will like their chances.
Grade: B
Left-Sided Centre-Backs
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Nicolas Otamendi
Nicolas Otamendi is quite familiar with Real Madrid. Twice in 2014-15, the Argentinian faced Los Blancos, and twice his Valencia outfit thwarted them. And it was in the first of those clashes at Mestalla when Otamendi scored the winner in a 2-1 victory—a goal that ended Madrid's 22-game winning run and sent them into a spiral in 2015.
At the time, he was hot property. But since moving to Manchester City last summer, the centre-back has experienced the most peculiar of seasons.
At times in the current campaign, Otamendi has looked exactly like the Valencia version: powerful, aggressive, passionate and a lover of the battle. But the flip side to that is he's just as regularly been reckless, inattentive and even negligent, his inconsistencies emblematic of his team as a whole.
Might Real Madrid bring the best out of him again?
Season Grade: B-
Sergio Ramos
As mentioned on the previous slide, this has been an extremely difficult season for Sergio Ramos.
All season, injuries have hampered him and form has escaped him. When he's played, mistakes have been regular; when he hasn't, Madrid have often been better for it. For much of the campaign, there's been something not right with Ramos. He's lacked the force you associate with him, the power and presence.
Yet it's easy to see it turning around.
Ramos, after all, has an uncanny knack for discovering his best when it matters. Remember his form in Madrid's run to the 2014 Champions League title? There are indications he might be set to do something similar again if his recent display against Wolfsburg is anything to go by.
Season Grade: C
Left-Backs
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Gael Clichy
For Gael Clichy and Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini, trust seems to be the overriding theme when it comes to the Champions League.
Despite playing second-fiddle to Aleksandar Kolarov at left-back in the Premier League, Clichy has been the man Pellegrini has turned to in Europe. In a way, that bucks the narrative that Pellegrini doesn't make conservative decisions, as Clichy is the more dependable but less expansive of City's two left-sided defenders.
From the Frenchman, you're not going to get swashbuckling forays down the left. There's no thunderous left boot either. What he does offer, though, is a certain security that, when paired with Bacary Sagna on the other flank, can give City a little more bite in defence—the sort seen in the recent 1-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain.
Season Grade: B
Marcelo
On his own, Marcelo is so emblematic of Real Madrid: brilliant going forward and not so interested going the other way.
Flying up the left flank, the Brazilian essentially functions as a second left-winger for Madrid, his dribbling, link-up work and crossing integral to his team's fluency in attack. But the price of that can be high.
As demonstrated in the quarter-final first leg against Wolfsburg and both legs against Roma in the round of 16, Marcelo's full-speed-ahead instincts mean Madrid are extremely vulnerable to being attacked down his flank.
Had Mohamed Salah not been so wasteful, Madrid wouldn't have made it this far.
Season Grade: B
Holding Midfielders
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Fernando
Like a number of his team-mates at the Etihad, Fernando will be looking ahead and wondering what his future holds at Manchester City. With the arrival of Pep Guardiola looming, the defensive midfielder doesn't feel very Pep, the technical limitations to his game hardly aligning with Guardiola's expansive approach.
Until then, though, the Brazilian has an important role to play.
Similar to Casemiro on the other side, Fernando's no-nonsense game is needed to give City's midfield a sense of stability and robustness. With Yaya Toure either unable or unwilling to dig in defensively and Fernandinho's more roaming style, Fernando has been the man tasked with covering the back four, and he has shown in the Champions League this season against Sevilla, Dynamo Kyiv and Paris Saint-Germain that he's vital in such a role.
Season Grade: B
Casemiro
Since being reinstated into the team by Zidane in the aftermath of February's Madrid derby, Casemiro has been a key factor in his team's form reversal.
Rugged, forceful, a powerful ball-winner, the Brazilian is essentially the antithesis of all those around him, his discipline and collective conscience giving Madrid's system some degree of balance. "Zidane's version of Claude Makelele," said Marca recently.
Casemiro isn't at that level yet, but his importance cannot be understated.
Season Grade: B+
Right-Sided Midfielders
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Fernandinho
Yaya Toure was once the centrepiece of the Manchester City midfield, but not anymore.
This season, Fernandinho has taken over the mantle of being his side's driving force centrally, his work ethic, athleticism, versatility and capacity to roam giving Pellegrini a highly reliable option in a season that has contained little of that quality elsewhere.
On Tuesday, his ability to work the length of the pitch and get forward from deep positions will be critical in testing Madrid's questionable defensive structure.
It's been a fine season to date for Fernandinho. Doing damage to Madrid might just cap it off.
Season Grade: A
Luka Modric
It's taken quite a while for Luka Modric to be appreciated at Real Madrid. At first, the Bernabeu wasn't sure about the Croatian. Then, per Marca, it didn't want him at all.
Now, though, it loves him.
Despite his reserved demeanour and quiet profile, Modric is the architect at Real Madrid. So fluent, so precise and so calm, the former Spurs star knits everything together for Los Blancos, and this might be his best season yet. One in which he's looked like a leader, a centrepiece.
Season Grade: A
Left-Sided Midfielders
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David Silva
Before we go any further: No, David Silva will not play on the left side of a midfield three, but in order to complete the comparison, that's where we've put him.
For Silva, this season has been a struggle in comparison to the consistently brilliant ones that have gone before it. Carrying an ankle problem for much of the campaign, the Spaniard has lacked the sharpness and incision that has defined his time at City, and he has been comprehensively outshone by Kevin De Bruyne.
In a press conference on Saturday, Pellegrini insisted the playmaker's injury issues were behind him. City will hope that's the case; a fit and firing Silva feeding De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero could present a plethora of problems for Real Madrid.
Season Grade: B-
Toni Kroos
So Toni Kroos looks more like Toni Kroos again. And that's significant.
Until recently, the German had looked nothing like the smooth and incisive metronome he was during his first year at Madrid, his clarity gone, his purpose muddled.
Under Rafa Benitez, Kroos played in every midfield position there is. It wasn't out of desire; instead, it seemed Benitez didn't what to do with him. Zidane initially struggled with the same thing, but things have changed of late.
The introduction of Casemiro into the anchor role has freed up the former Bayern Munich star. No longer burdened with defensive work he's not suited to, Kroos is once more running, probing, passing and shooting.
The clarity is back. The sense of purpose too.
Grade: B-
Right-Wingers
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Jesus Navas
Twenty crosses, two of them accurate: It was peak Jesus Navas, they said.
It was mid-September when Navas achieved that statistical feat in a 2-1 loss for Manchester City against West Ham United, per WhoScored.com. Fans fumed. This was emblematic of why the frustration with Navas is so persistent. There's so much industry, pace and potential, but there's such little end product.
Still, though, Navas continues to be a regular under Pellegrini. Clearly, the Chilean values the point of difference the Spaniard brings—directness and an unrelenting work ethic.
On Tuesday, could he bring some quality too?
Season Grade: C
Gareth Bale
Saturday against Rayo Vallecano said it all: Gareth Bale is the player Real Madrid always wanted him to be.
In the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, the Welshman put Madrid on his back and carried them to a rousing come-from-behind victory, completely dominating while scoring twice in a 3-2 win.
Those two goals were his 17th and 18th in the league in just 19 starts this term. Suddenly, he looks empowered and assertive; he's no longer the sidekick.
Imagine if he hadn't been injured for half of the season.
Season Grade: A
Left-Wingers
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Kevin De Bruyne
At the beginning of the season: "But £54 million is a lot."
Now: "Seems about right."
Living up to such a monstrous price tag is notoriously difficult, but perhaps the biggest compliment Kevin De Bruyne can be given this season is that he's done so. Easily.
So dynamic, so devastating, the Belgian has taken the Premier League by storm in 2015-16, and probably stands as City's finest—something that was reinforced when, ahead of this clash with Madrid, Pellegrini rested him and not Sergio Aguero for Saturday's visit of Stoke City.
It's tempting to think City might be jostling with Leicester City for the title had De Bruyne not been sidelined with injury for three months.
Season Grade: A
Cristiano Ronaldo
The talk was of decline, the sensations were off and some of the statistics were misleading. For the opening half of the current season, Cristiano Ronaldo didn't look like himself, his game almost limited, the extraordinary aspect curiously absent.
Questions piled up and pressure mounted. Was he coming to the end at Madrid? It seemed possible at the time, but now such a thought looks absurd.
Since the turn of the year, Ronaldo has found it again: the explosiveness, the speed, the relentlessness and the avalanche of goals. It's as if he's rebelled against a future he didn't like the look of, the emotional shift significant.
Now his season record reads: 44 games, 47 goals. Ridiculous.
Season Grade: A
Strikers
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Sergio Aguero
It's the simple stat that keeps doing the rounds but continues to be startling: Sergio Aguero has never been named in the PFA Team of the Year.
Quite how that has happened is difficult to fathom, given the Argentinian has 101 goals in 148 Premier League appearances. This season, his record has again been sublime: 35 goals in 44 games in all competitions, and even more significant is his form.
Indeed, Manchester City's recent upswing is very much down to Aguero; he's got seven goals in seven games since the derby defeat to Manchester United.
Season Grade: A
Karim Benzema
For a while, he was the overlooked component of the trio. But not anymore.
Repeatedly in 2015-16, Karim Benzema has shown that, structurally, he might be Real Madrid's most important figure. In the middle of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, the Frenchman's interplay, back-to-goal work and presenting to the midfield has given Madrid a fulcrum to play around.
Without him, Madrid don't quite function.
Additionally, Benzema is enjoying the best season in front of goal of his career. Already he has 23 goals in the league, in just 24 starts—like it has for Bale, injury has frustratingly interrupted his season—and owns the best minutes-per-goal figure (80, per WhoScored.com) of any player in Spain.
Season Grade: A
