While having Delph step in to perform admirably in a position not natural to him, City walked the league in 17/18 although it was very expected that Delph was not the long-term left-back, it was Mendy when he returns.

At that time, Zinchenko was just a 20 year-old known to be a midfield player, a prospect. Danilo was predominantly a right-back and Laporte had just been brought in during the January transfer window to be a left-sided centre-back, so a lot of the later options tried by Pep weren’t at that point yet to play left-back.

In the 18/19 season, Mendy had a chance to redeem everything.

In FPL terms, Mendy was absolute gold. Starting the season off in style, he raced up the points chart. Bombing forward and whipping in relentless crosses for assists and racking up clean sheets and bonus, he became the start of a 3-man premium defence that made waves at last season’s beginning. Robertson, Mendy and Alonso became known for the first few weeks as ‘The Holy Trinity’.

However, it wasn’t all sunshine, rainbows and double-figure hauls for very long. In mid-September, Mendy received a foot injury which would rule him out for the next month, kickstarting another injury-ridden campaign he’ll want to forget on a personal level despite the clear success of his club in his absence.

His biggest injury was a meniscus problem he had surgery for in November which kept him out until January. Almost instantly after his comeback, he was having problems with the same knee again that kept him out for another month. At that point, his inclusion in City’s squad for games and appearances were very sporadic.

His injury timeline in the 18/19 season is as follows(according to transfermarkt):

  • Foot Injury : 14th September to 7th October (2018)
  • Meniscus Surgery : 14th November(2018) to 21st January(2019)
  • Meniscus Problem : 25th January to 27th February (2019)

So, what did Man City do to try cover for him?

Pep tried many options. He tried Danilo, he used Delph again, he pushed Laporte out to LB, he even tried wingbacks. 

Most importantly to us, he tried Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Zinchenko was only used sporadically PL-wise in the first half of the season, mainly playing earlier cup rounds and group stage CL games, but for the final few months he made the left-back position his own in the Premier League.

Zinchenko’s frequent use in all competitions heated up around late-December and the game that ended up cementing him was when he started in a 6-0 win vs Chelsea in the PL. 2 assists and a clean sheet for him at left-back. After that, he started in the EFL Cup Final which they won.

He picked up a small muscle strain just before the FA Cup semi-final which put him in doubt and Pep had this to say:

“During the season this kind of thing happens if you play a lot of minutes. You accept it and we are going to find a solution. I don’t know right now which one because Danilo fought a lot to play in that position. I appreciate that a lot. It’s not his natural position but he fought a lot. We’ll see the decision we will take for the FA Cup semi-final.”

Delph ended up starting the game. At the 57th minute, he was subbed out for Zinchenko when City were 2-0 down away to Swansea. They went on to make a comeback and win the game 3-2.

Zinchenko started the last 5 PL games of the season in the important run-in to the title, picking up 5 wins and 4 clean sheets, only conceding 1 goal through a Brighton final day set-piece scare.

He then started the FA Cup final, 6-0, another dominant win and a clean sheet.

There had been rumours that City were desperate for a left-back, but reports came out that Pep was very impressed with Zinchenko, and he was rewarded with a new 5-year deal at the end of the season, keeping him there until 2024.

At the start of next season, one would assume that Mendy should be ready to go and compete again with time to heal up. However, even if fit(which is a big ask given his recent history), it seems that Zinchenko has become the main left-back for Man City. From what we know, Mendy has been able to play since the start of March and yet he was seen very rarely, often not included in the squad. While all these important games were taking place, it was Zinchenko entrusted with the role.

Pep’s issues with Mendy go far beyond his injuries. Mendy, despite being a beloved Twitter icon, has frustrated his coach many times with his behaviour, sparking much criticism from Pep:

When asked if Mendy would be fit for the match against Cardiff on 3rd of April, Pep responded, “Yes he’s fit.” They won the game 2-0 with Zinchenko starting, but Mendy was not even in the squad. The Saturday before he was seen celebrating an away victory until 3:30 in the morning at a Disco. On Sunday, he had to go to team training as scheduled.

“They are old enough to know what they have to do, I’m not his father. I would prefer him to go home earlier but I don’t control the players in that situation” said Pep when asked about the situation.

Mendy has also turned up 3 hours late for training after being at a boxing match the night before in September.

In February, Mendy played a joke on social media by sharing his location as being in Hong Kong.

When Pep was informed of this he said:

“Hong Kong? Fuck – is he? He said he was going to Paris but Hong Kong – I don’t know. I have to understand Instagram. Really, I don’t know. Yesterday he was in Barcelona.”

Asked if it would be OK if Mendy was in Hong Kong, Guardiola said: “Hong Kong, definitely not.”

Mendy responded by saying it was not true:

“I was just joking with my Uber driver, I don’t want no problems Pep” he tweeted.

Even during his great start to the 18/19 season, Pep said:

“Mendy is Mendy. Sometimes we want to kill him and sometimes you think wow what a player we have. He gives us energy. Mendy has a lot of things to improve and hopefully we can convince him to forget a little bit the social media and improve a few things.”

It’s quite clear that Pep has a lot of issues with Mendy. His injuries, his on-pitch performance at times, his antics and behaviour, especially on social media. He may be seen as an unprofessional player by him that was simply needed before they discovered the brilliance of Zinchenko at left-back.

Pep has had nothing but good things to say about him:

“Incredible is the only thing I can say. Oleks has showed me the importance and value of being a good guy. At the beginning of the season he was close to making a transfer, and I never saw him have one bad face or had a bad training session from him. Some players want to show me how disappointed they are, but Zinchenko is the complete opposite. When this happens, you are always going to play good. He is going to have a long career, here hopefully! I can only say thank you to him – everybody has to learn from Oleks! He deserves to be where he is.”

That is huge praise from someone like Pep. Zinchenko was rewarded with the playtime in most matches in the 2nd half of the season, including important ones, and a new deal at the end of it all, even over an available Mendy.

This would all seem to suggest that he is the main starting left-back now and his biggest competition for the spot is highly injury prone and not held in the highest esteem even when fit.

So now you may ask, why not just go with Laporte? Much safer, you know he’s going to play.

Well that’s because Zinchenko saves a full million in the bank, and his attacking potential is far greater than Laporte’s by the numbers. Laporte had 3 goals 3 assists in over 3000 minutes. Zinchenko had 3 assists in just over 1000 minutes.

Zinchenko has played 22 games for City ever in the PL, and they have won every single game he has played. 100%. 22/22.

He started and played over 60 mins in 12 PL games for them last campaign and they kept 9 clean sheets, most of these games were in the last couple of months at the end of the season implying his preference over everyone in that position is backed up by recency also.

Zinchenko was classed as a midfielder playing reverse OOP last season which means he only got a measly 44 points, but if he had been a defender and we recalculated his points(adding on CS points, estimating potential bonus points) he would land somewhere around 80-90 points in his 14 appearances. No minus points for 2 goals conceded because City didn’t concede 2 goals in any of his games.

This is obviously not exact as its hard to estimate his bonus, but if we added his CS points and said he got around 10 bonus from all his games(it could easily be more or less than this) then he’d finish on 81 points in that many games.

81 points in 14 games is 5.8 points per match which is exceptional. Thats just under Robbo/TAA level, more than Laporte and VVD, at a price of 5.5.

At the end of it all, this is just speculation and it’s hard to know what Pep will ever do, but if the second half of last season lines up with the start of 19/20, all signs point to Zinchenko being Man City’s starting left-back and he could be the bargain of the season at 5.5 as an attacking full-back in one of the best defences in the league.

Zinchenko seems to look like the starting left-back at City for next season after cementing the place in the 2nd half of the season with excellent performances. Mendy’s injury record, unprofessional behaviour, criticism from Pep and not being selected despite being fit are signs that he is not seen as necessary anymore. Zinchenko has an incredible record for them with 100% wins when he plays, and clean sheets in 75% of matches he starts and plays over 60 mins, 9/12. His points per match and assist potential is huge. He could be an absolute bargain at 5.5 and may be a small risk worth taking to save money and receive huge value.

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