Riyad Mahrez’s move to Manchester City, mooted last season but ultimately concluded
in this summer, has left some wondering where in Pep Guardiola’s record-setting, stellar
side he might fit.
Guardiola’s City machine developed into a wonderfully settled, functioning system
last season and, while it relied to a degree on player versatility, especially at left
back, a first choice eleven was fairly clear.
Mahrez, a 27 year old Premier League winner and reportedly City’s record signing, will
not want to sit on the bench, but displacing anyone in Guardiola’s first choice team
will be a challenge.
At Leicester City, Mahrez lined up largely on the right hand side of a four man midfield.
Leicester’s preferred 4-4-2, with Jamie Vardy pushed up ahead of another striker,
often Shinji Okazaki, was used under Claudio Ranieri when the Foxes unexpectedly won the
title, and continued to be the formation used, in the main, by Claude Puel last season.
Mahrez is extremely gifted at finding space.
He would often start quite deep as Leicester sought to transition from the back, drifting
wide so that a large area of the pitch would be open in front of him.
Dangerous with the ball at his feet, Mahrez would look to find enough room to run at the
opposition full back before cutting inside to cross or shoot, or continue his drift but
tucking inside to find space in the box.
This would suggest that Mahrez is well suited to Guardiola’s style of play on the right
wing, where players like Raheem Sterling have used this same instinct for finding space
to pop up in scoring positions.
Guardiola likes his wide players to stay wide, which certainly suits aspects of Mahrez’s
playing style.
Indeed, in the Charity Shield this is largely how Mahrez played.
But aspects of Manchester City’s pre-season use of Mahrez suggest an alternative, as do
facets of his playing style in the Community Shield and at Leicester City.
Against Bayern Munich in pre-season, Mahrez was again nominally positioned as the right
winger, but actually played further back and tucked inside.
Luke Bolton, who started at right central midfield in Guardiola’s 4-3-3, actually
spent much of his time ahead of Mahrez, with the latter tucking inside to fill more of
an inside right position.
With Bolton overlapping, supported by full back Cameron Humphreys-Grant, Mahrez drifted
infield, looking to link with the other midfielders for rotation and switching of the play, and
surging up into the spaces left by Bolton’s runs out wide.
This aspect of Mahrez’s abilities was on show for Leicester City too, though largely
against sides that played three at the back.
Though still starting as a right midfielder, Mahrez would drift infield consistently: with
a wide centre back and wing back in the wide and half spaces, Mahrez preferred to cut infield
and help Leicester outnumber the midfield area, rather than try to find space against
two defenders.
This ability to play much more centrally, to play a creative role further infield rather
than relying on his pace and dribbling when running into space, suggests that Mahrez can
play more than one role for City.
Indeed, Guardiola likes his players to be versatile, to learn the system and then be
able to play several roles within it; it is no surprise, then, that Mahrez is just that
sort of player.
While his swash-buckling runs out wide, cutting in to shoot having found space or beating
a man, are his trademark, Mahrez is a well-rounded attacking player, capable of keeping the ball
in the more congested spaces in the centre of the pitch, and playing defence-opening
passes from a deeper position.
Mahrez’s versatility, combined with Bernardo Silva’s excellence in pre-season, suggest
that there will be fierce competition for places across City’s front five this season.
With players who can fill various roles, Guardiola has a versatile, technically excellent set
of attacking midfielders and wingers.
Far from sitting on the bench all season, Riyad Mahrez can and will play a crucial,
perhaps central role, to Manchester City’s title aspirations.