Man City's best team of the decade: Fan group City Xtra pick out their best Man City team of the last ten years
After so much success how do you pick Man City's best XI of the last decade? We gave that task to fan group City Xtra.
It is quite difficult to narrow down the cast of City’s most successful ever decade to just eleven players. Over the past ten years, we’ve been lucky enough to see some of the world’s most talented footballers bless the Etihad pitch with their presence - long gone are the days when Joey Barton could finish as the club’s top scorer with a tally of six league goals, and Richard Dunne could be crowned the club’s best player for four consecutive years.
Now, the competition is so strong you can make a legitimate case to leave out a player as talented as Leroy Sane. With that said, here are the eleven players that I believe merit a place in City’s Team of the Decade.
Goalkeeper: Joe Hart
It’s hard to believe now, but once upon a time Burnley’s bench-warming goalkeeper Joe Hart was one of the best ‘keepers in Europe for Manchester City.
His precipitous decline has prompted a kind of amnesia about this fact – it’s not unusual to hear fans say Hart was always overrated. Not so.
In Roberto Mancini’s successful 2010/11 and 2011/12 campaigns, Hart was an integral member of the team.
Some of his performances in the Champions League afterwards, against Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund in particular, were phenomenal.
He won the league’s Golden Glove award on four separate occasions, which is a testament to his ability to organise a defence and his reliability between the posts.
Right-back: Pablo Zabaleta
The Premier League’s best ever right-back, and that’s the hill I’m willing to die on.
When it comes to consistency, work-rate, defensive solidity and intelligence, he is unrivalled. Zabaleta loved a sliding tackle and his infectious passion quickly earned him the adoration of the Etihad faithful.
Aside from his sharpness in defence, in Mancini’s winger-less system Zabaleta’s ability to get in behind the opposition’s defence was vital.
Week after week you could rely on Zabaleta to put in a 7/10 performance when it came to both defending and attacking, which makes him a safer option than the admittedly more talented Kyle Walker.
Centre-back: Vincent Kompany
Pure class, on and off the pitch. Kompany will go down as City’s greatest ever captain – and one of the club’s greatest ever players. A born leader, his presence has been sorely missed this season.
One of the shrewdest signings of the Premier League era, he was a colossus at the heart of City’s defence for over a decade.
In spite of all the injury troubles, at 33 years of age he was as vital to City’s title success last season as he was eight years ago in 2012. It is impossible to imagine City’s success this past decade without the magisterial presence of the Belgian at the club.
It is only fitting that in his final three outings in a City shirt, Kompany scored a thirty-yard pile-driver against Leicester, lifted the Premier League title at Brighton and then hoisted the FA Cup at Wembley.
Centre-back: Aymeric Laporte
Since arriving from Athletic Bilbao in January 2018, Laporte has slotted seamlessly into Pep Guardiola’s side. As comfortable dispossessing an opponent as he is carrying the ball forward and playing incisive passes, the Frenchman is the ideal defender for Pep’s system.
He quickly established himself as untouchable in the line-up, and his importance to the team has been painfully exposed by his injury this season.
For all the plaudits Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk won last season, Laporte was hardly far from the Dutchman’s level. If he can keep fit, he’ll cement his status as one of the world’s best defenders.
Left-back: Gael Clichy
City’s success rate of finding a half-decent, reliable left-back is so bad that it makes Henry VIII’s marriage record look astute.
In our two most recent title-winning campaigns our first choice has ended up being either Fabian Delph or a young Ukrainian attacking midfielder signed from FC UFA for £1m.
The only dependable left-back City have had this decade was Gael Clichy, especially in his debut season in 2011/12. In a polar opposite of our present problems, Clichy was hardly a threat going forward but he had the pace and nous necessary to contain most wingers in the league.
He was virtually mistake-proof for a full season, and right now City fans would rejoice if our present options limited themselves to one every month or so.
Central midfield: Fernandinho
Few City fans had even heard of Fernandinho, let alone seen the Shaktar Donetsk midfielder in action, upon his arrival for a not insubstantial £30m in the summer of 2013.
YouTube videos created a misleading impression of the archetypal Brazilian midfielder oozing with flair. Instead, what we got was one of the best defensive midfielders in Premier League history.
Intelligent, athletic, combative and composed, Fernandinho protected City’s defence and smothered opposition attacks with an unrivalled efficiency; yet, he was still a handful going forward.
Capable as a CB or a CAM, if you had to give every City player this decade a score for their attributes and add them up, it would be a safe bet to say Fernandinho would have the highest total.
Central midfield: Yaya Toure
‘Does he score goals? No. Does he create them? No. Is he an OK holding midfield player? Yeah – but De Jong, Vieira and Barry do that job already’ - thus commented football expert Paul Merson upon Yaya Toure’s arrival at City in 2010.
In spite of carrying the prestige of playing in Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona side, the signing of Toure went without fanfare.
Indeed, in his first few games, Merson’s verdict appeared mildly lucid. However, as the season progressed, Toure shattered any misperceptions about his capabilities.
His goals secured City the FA Cup in 2011, he was indispensable in 2011/12 and his twenty-goal heroics in 2013/14 remains legendary.
The Ivorian blended a unique combination of sheer physicality with world-class technique and poise.
Attacking midfield: David Silva
The best playmaker to ever ply his trade in the Premier League. From 2010 to today, game after game you could find David Silva ghosting into space, eluding his marker and slowly dissecting an opponent’s defence.
His effortless volleyed pass for Edin Dzeko to make it six at Old Trafford is one of the league’s most iconic moments.
Even as his powers have waned as he enters the denouement of his career, he has remained far more than just a cog in the City machine.
If you were to poll all City fans on who is the club’s greatest ever player, you’d likely find the humble Spaniard come out on top. After Danilo’s first training session at City, he apparently asked Guardiola in astonishment if Silva was that good every day – the answer was yes.
It is that consistent excellence which will define Silva’s career.
Attacking midfield: Kevin de Bruyne
After being crowned Bundesliga Player of the Year for a breath-taking season at Wolfsburg, de Bruyne arrived at City with high expectations.
Yet, the Belgian has still ended up being far better than even the most optimistic fan envisioned.
Guardiola’s role in unleashing the full potential of de Bruyne is underappreciated. Manuel Pellegrini struggled to find harmony in a side that featured both de Bruyne and Silva, which often forced the Belgian to play out wide.
It took Pep’s tinkering to allow de Bruyne to become the all-round destroyer that he is now. His performances in the first half of the 2017/18 season is probably the greatest spell of form any City player has had this decade.
When he is fit and firing, the only player I would choose over de Bruyne in world football is Lionel Messi. With his powerful runs and ludicrous ability to execute defence-splitting passes, the Belgian somehow manages to stand out as exceptional in a team full of world-class talent.
Forward: Sergio Aguero
Of course, City’s all-time record goalscorer has to be in the team. The stocky Argentine star has netted 254 times for the club in all competitions.
Aguero is the highest scoring foreign player in the Premier League era, and he is responsible for what is English football’s most memorable goal. Bizarrely overlooked for personal awards, it is only in the past two seasons that he has made the PFA Team of the Year for his efforts.
After scoring twice and getting an assist in his first half an hour in a City shirt, Aguero quickly set the narrative for the rest of the decade.
With his notorious low centre of gravity, rapidity over short distances and finesse in front of goal, it is no surprise that he finds himself regularly on the scoresheet.
It will be a sad day when he finally leaves Manchester, and it will be an inordinately troublesome task to find a forward as reliable as Aguero.
Forward: Carlos Tevez
“Carlos Tevez, with his bulldog like approach” – we all remember Martin Tyler’s famous tribute to Tevez’s workrate.
What’s less well-remembered is how technically blessed the combative Argentinean was. At City, for a few years, he acquired an importance within the team that few others had done before or after.
It was at City where Tevez truly realised his fearsome potential. He scored 23 league goals in his first season before winning the Golden Boot the following year, all while proving himself to also be one of the best passers and dribblers in the league.
Although his time at City soured after a spat with Mancini, it is hard to choose a team that doesn’t include Tevez. At his peak he would take the burden of carrying City’s attacking threat all on his own, and thrive.
Substitutes
- Ederson Moraes (GK)
- Kyle Walker
- Gareth Barry
- Bernardo Silva
- Leroy Sane
- Raheem Sterling
- Edin Dzeko
City Xtra's Team of the Decade
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