The Manchester City Player Awards
Who was the best defender, midfielder, forward, Most Improved Player, and Super Sub for Manchester City's title this season
Nottingham Forest defeated Arsenal this weekend which has mathematically crowned Manchester City as the 23/24 Premier League champions with 3 matches left to play (for City, now 2 matches).
Is this a historical Premier League title run? If City win their remaining 2 matches they will achieve a points total of 96pts. The previous 2 Premier League titles won by City were won on 93pts, 86pts.
But what and who helped propel City to this title? We’ll look at who was the best defender, midfielder, forward, the Most Improved Player, and of course the Super Sub award.
By the end of Match-week 16 and the start of the Qatar World Cup Man City were in 2nd place in the league 5pts behind Arsenal and with 2 loses already into the season. The team was unconvincing and it was unclear if they had a title challenge in them.
With time to think during the World Cup, Pep Guardiola made changes to his team and his tactical setup. These changes are the drivers of the individual awards bestowed by this program and what has earned Man City their 3rd consecutive league title, and 5th in 4 years.
Best Defender Award
Arguably the easiest award to determine, this one goes to Manuel Akanji. When you watch how comfortably Akanji fits into City’s defense, playing any position across the back-four, it’s odd to think about the fact that this is the Swiss center-back’s first season with Manchester City.
Akanji has everything in his locker, he makes crucial defensive stops, he is an elite tackler, he wins balls in the air, his high football IQ allows him to play multiple positions, he is comfortable in possession etc. There are no weaknesses to Akanji’s game as a center-back.
Honorable mentions go to John Stones who has experienced a bit of a renaissance as a midfielder and Nathan Aké who has been one of the leaders in the evolution of center-backs playing as full-backs.
Best Midfielder Award
While the best defender and (spoiler alert) forward are easier to award, the best midfielder award is quite subjective. Kevin De Bruyne put on an absolutely exceptional display of midfield-play this season. De Bruyne had 16 assists in the Premier League; for context, the next highest assist leaders were Saka and Salah tied for 11 and Bernardo Silva, who also played elite football had the delta of 5 assists.
If Kevin De Bruyne is not your cup of tea, the next deserving candidate for this award is Rodri. Because of the nature of the 6 or CDM position, its not as easy to quantify Rodri’s contribution to this team other than the fact that he was the spine and core of this unit this season. Erik Ten Hag has used this analogy to describe Casemiro’s role at Manchester United which is, to be the cement holding the bricks together; a perfect description for Rodri.
We’ll bestow the award to Rodri over De Bruyne purely on the basis that Rodri’s position and role are more difficult to replace than the legend that is De Bruyne who has understudies at the club.
Best Forward Award
Erling Haaland. Everything that could be said about Haaland has already been said at this point but are we taking the Norwegian for granted now? I appreciate the greatness that he’s put on display this year but what I’m most excited for is the prospect of another Premier League forward challenging him for the golden boot next season. A goal scoring rivalry to emulate that of Messi vs Ronaldo circa the mid 2010s is there to be had, Haaland just needs a dueling partner.
Most Improved Player
From an over-paid and over qualified role player to one of the first names on the team-sheet, Jack Grealish must win the most improved player of the year award for Manchester City.
Grealish has changed his game to become a more complete all-around left-winger. He mentioned after the medal ceremony just how confident he feels about his game and added that right now is the fittest he’s been.
Fitness is critical to Grealish’s game because as well as being an absolute creative force, there isn’t a single left winger in the league that works as hard defensively.
A well deserved award for a player who’s done what fans yearn for most from their troops, elevate your game.
Super Sub
Similarly to the midfield position, this award is a bit of a toss up. The less obvious answer to choose here, from a substitute perspective, would be the young killer Julián Álvarez but City’s not necessarily reliant on the substitute as much as the rotation players of Riyad Mahrez & Bernardo Silva.
The question of who is Manchester City’s starting right-winger cannot be answered plainly; it depends what part of the season we’re in and which competition. Mahrez may be one of the best cup-competition players to grace England while Bernardo Silva will go several consecutive games without a start but the moment Pep wants to make a major adjustment to their tactics he’s the first lieutenant called upon.
While it’s difficult to choose, with 10 league assists this season (in a team where KDB has a monopoly on assists), the award goes to Riyad Mahrez.