100 touches, 95% passing: Man City star is now as undroppable as Marmoush
da bet sport： Manchester City certainly don’t do things the easy way. After just 21 minutes of their Premier League clash against Crystal Palace on Saturday, they trailed 2-0.
da 888： In the 33rd minute, Kevin De Bruyne grabbed the bull by the horns and curled home City’s first goal of the afternoon. An hour later, they had five and had secured all three points to remain firmly in the mix for Champions League football.
The performance showed Pep Guardiola’s men at their scintillating best, especially throughout the second half, netting three unanswered goals.
While De Bruyne ran the show, January signing Omar Marmoush was also excellent, scoring their equaliser before the interval.
Omar Marmoush’s game in numbers vs Crystal Palace
Since joining from Eintracht Frankfurt, Marmoush has settled into the City side with ease. Across 12 games for the club, he has already racked up seven goals, including a stunning treble against Newcastle United.
With De Bruyne operating in an advanced role through the middle, the 26-year-old offered plenty from the left wing. Indeed, he created a big chance, made two key passes and attempted four dribbles (succeeding with two) against the Eagles.
He may have lost possession 14 times and won only three of his seven total contested duels, but Marmoush looks the real deal at City.
There is no doubt he will have a big part to play next season and bringing him in during the winter window was perhaps Guardiola’s finest decision this season.
Manchester City vs Crystal Palace – Key Statistics
Metric
Highest-ranked
Accurate passes
Rúben Dias (105)
Key passes
Kevin De Bruyne (4)
Tackles
Chris Richards and Nico Gonzalez (4)
Ground duels won
Daniel Munoz and Nico Gonzalez (5)
Shots on target
Omar Marmoush (3)
Via Sofascore
It was the performance of another winter arrival yesterday, however, that proves he is now as undroppable as the Egyptian talent – Nico Gonzalez.
Why Nico Gonzalez is now undroppable for Man City
The Spaniard has started seven of City’s eight league games since he made the move from Porto to Manchester, impressing at the heart of the midfield.
Against Palace, not only did the midfielder take 100 touches, controlling the play, but he also succeeded with 95% of his passes – 83 out of 87 – and won seven of his 11 total contested duels throughout the game.
Add in the fact that he made four tackles and lost possession only six times for City. Gonzalez is certainly proving to be an excellent signing, no doubt about that.
Like the Marmoush deal, bringing in the 23-year-old midway through the season will allow him to almost acclimatise to the demands of the Premier League – that might just be a strategy which pays off next season.
Simon Bajkowski, Manchester Evening News journalist, gave the youngster a match rating of 6/10 for his performance, stating that he ‘made some important interceptions’ throughout the game, although he could have avoided his yellow card in the first half.
January was spent bringing in five new faces to the club. On the basis of the performances by Marmoush and Gonzalez, Guardiola’s side will be hoping to end the season on a high note, thus heightening their ambitions that they can reclaim the title next term.
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