A much changed Manchester City swept Brentford aside to qualify for the semi finals of the Carabao Cup.
Rayan Cherki’s thunderbolt and Savinho’s heavily deflected effort meant City progressed to the final
four of the competition for the first time since they last won it in 2021.
They’ll face Newcastle United in the semi finals, with the first leg at St James’s Park taking place in three weeks time.
Here are three things we learned as City beat the Bees:
Cherki is the absolute real deal
Rayan Cherki is flying at City right now.
The Frenchman has started the last four games in all competitions for the Blues and is chipping in with goals and assists – he’s already made the most assists in the Premier League this season despite playing fewer minutes than all his close competitors.
Cherki’s two footedness is what seems to make him so unique compared to other players at the top level.
He tends to dribble mostly with his left, but prefers to shift onto his right foot when crossing or shooting, and scored his best goal yet against Keith Andrews’s side; it was an extremely powerful strike from the edge of the box pinged into the top right corner.
Right now, he’s delivering in every game he plays in and looks to be filling Kevin de Bruyne’s vacant position perfectly.
Khusanov’s too rash – but immensely gifted
Had Abdukodir Khusanov received a red card at 0-0 that could hardly have been argued with, then maybe City wouldn’t have a cup semi final to look forward to.
Khusanov’s clumsy challenge when Kevin Schade appeared to be through on goal resulted in a yellow, and whilst it appears his touch was taking him to quite a wide angle, it could have been interpreted as a denial of a clear goal scoring opportunity.
The Uzbekistan international has been at City for nearly a year now, and has made his mark already. He’s fast, physical and extremely aggressive, and has shown impressive levels of composure on the ball as well as versatility to play at centre back and right back.
But he still often has the mad rush of blood to the head and makes a daft mistake. Since his debut, he hasn’t made a really bad one, and often his recovery pace bails him out, but he needs to tidy that side of his game up.
Once he does, his profile as a centre back is extremely unique, and you could easily see him progressing to become one of the best in the world in his position.
Lewis deserves more minutes
One player who’s performance is going under the radar is Rico Lewis.
The City academy graduate for me was one of City’s standout performers, and bar a few glaring weaknesses in his game would be the absolutely perfect player for Pep Guardiola.
He’s hardworking, extremely technical, and probably City’s most versatile player. Guardiola has used him at both full backs and everywhere in midfield, from sitting in front of the back four to playing just off Erling Haaland up front.
He played well against Brentford, defending his flank well out of possession and floating all over the pitch when City were in possession. He was barged off the ball a few times, but that’s the only negative to his game.
He needs to improve his strength; David Silva was smaller than every other player on the pitch like Lewis is but never let that phase him physically.
He isn’t the tallest or fastest player either but he can’t control that. It makes playing at right back difficult, so I think his future at City is in midfield.
Now may be his chance to stake a claim for more minutes. Jeremy Doku and Oscar Bobb are injured, whilst Omar Marmoush is away on international duty.
The likes of Cherki, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden might have to be shifted into the forward line to compensate which frees up a space in midfield for Lewis to slot into.
