1 week ago
47
Nico O'Reilly will hoping to play for Manchester City in Aston Villa in very different circumstances to last year, when he could have made his debut
Pep Guardiola had never known his Manchester City squad be stretched like it was in December 2024. Not since a Covid outbreak ripped through the group at the end of 2020 had they felt so depleted and this time there would be no matches postponed.
A run of eight defeats and just one win from their last 11 games had ruined the season and wrecked morale; as they prepared for a trip to Unai Emery's Aston Villa there was not much hope of their fortune changing. Coming immediately on the back of a dismal defeat in the Manchester derby, Guardiola had his work cut out.
With Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias injured and doubts over John Stones, City's coach considered something completely different. In the days before the Villa game, a relatively unknown academy midfielder Nico O'Reilly trained in the centre-back role for what would have been a daunting debut.
Ultimately, Stones was deemed just about fit enough to partner Akanji and O'Reilly was simply left on the bench. When Stones malfunctioned again and was taken off at half-time, Kyle Walker came on instead and O'Reilly wasn't used.
Guardiola agonised over whether to throw his academy players into the team during the most difficult stretch of the season. Jahmai Simpson-Pusey was tried in defence when the form first started to turn but otherwise the manager decided it was better to protect the youngsters from the pain and trust his senior stars.
O'Reilly's debut instead came a month later against League One opposition as Salford visited the Etihad in the FA Cup. The 20-year-old played at left-back and looked good, coming up with a goal.
That performance earned him a start in the next round at Leyton Orient, and as City faced a quarter-final exit at the hands of a Bournemouth side who were good value for their 1-0 half-time lead O'Reilly was summoned from the bench and changed the game. He became the first choice left-back for the rest of the season, starting eight of the remaining 11 matches in a City team that secured Champions League football.
After some wobbles at the start of this term, Guardiola turned to his makeshift left-back again with Rayan Ait-Nouri ruled out of the Manchester derby, and O'Reilly hasn't looked back. Eight starts later, City had six wins and two draws with only Jeremy Doku managing more assists than O'Reilly in that time.
Since his debut against Salford, the Blues have a 81 per cent winning percentage with O'Reilly and 48 per cent without; as drastically, their losing record with him in the team (nine per cent) absolutely rockets up (to 32 per cent) when he doesn't start.
"We want him, so we did the effort that we need to help him stay here longer. I’m really pleased because Nico is growing a lot," Guardiola said last month.
“Since he started playing, I think we have lost just one game in the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace. Nico helped us a lot, he improved his aggression, [he’s dangerous] from set-pieces, with the ball and we are really pleased.”
Perhaps O'Reilly would have been City's winning charm at Villa Park last December, sparking a more immediate return to form for a team who instead were fortunate to only lose 2-1. The local lad could have been turned into the centre-back that City needed to stabilise their season.
But how a young player comes through is often about timing - Simpson-Pusey is currently struggling to get any minutes on loan at Celtic - and despite Guardiola's regret about not using his academy stars more last year there is every chance that playing at Villa could have taken O'Reilly on a different course.
Sitting on the bench for that game turned out to be the best debut O'Reilly never had, allowing him to enter the team in easier circumstances. As they return to Villa Park, City are in a much stronger position and O'Reilly has a much better chance of starting - just not at centre-back.
---
Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis.
Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.
You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.
And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can also watch along on YouTube.
English (US) ·