Pep Guardiola has been handed a huge injury boost ahead of their clash with Manchester United Oleksandr Zinchenko has been declared fit following a knee injury that has seen him miss eight games.
Left-back has been a problematic area of late with Benjamin Mendy failing to turn in the level of performance expected of him up at St James’ Park last weekend, as he was heavily criticised once again.
Speaking to the press, Guardiola said: “Zinchenko has trained for the last few days with all the squad. He’s ready but in his physical condition I don’t know how many minutes he can play.”
Should Zinchenko start ahead of Mendy for the remainder of the season?
Yes
No
TIF Tactics – A position of concern for Pep
According to WhoScored.com, Benjamin Mendy earned the lowest rating of all of Manchester City’s outfield players during the recent 2-2 draw with Newcastle United at St James’ Park. That below-par performance led to the Frenchman being dropped for the game at Burnley in which Angelino replaced him.
He’s not expected to publicly announce it but based on Guardiola’s indecision around who should occupy the role, its clear he’s struggling to put his faith in either of Angelino or Mendy for a sustained period of time.
Zinchenko, who is valued at £27m by TransferMarkt, had performed well prior to his injury averaging a performance rating of 7/10 in the Premier League this season. The 22-year-old has made 52 appearances for Manchester City since joining the club from Russian side FK Ufa in 2016.
The Ukrainian has scored once for the Cityzen’s but does, however, have 5 assists to his name – highlighting his ability to play the Guardiola way by offering plenty of threat in the attacking third.
It’s unlikely he will be deemed fit enough to start at the weekend but the manager will be pleased to have him back in contention moving into a hectic period nonetheless.