Thriving £20m Man City star gets deserved recognition in TOTW selection - opinion

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Alan Shearer has praised Ilkay Gundogan after his performance against Aston Villa and has chosen the German in his Premier League Team of the Week.

What did he say?

Gundogan has found it hard to nail down a permanent starting spot in Manchester City’s team this year because of Rodri and Fernandinho. The former Borussia Dortmund man has started seven times out of the 10 games in the Premier League so far.

However, because of the injury to Rodri and Fernandinho stepping in at centre-back, we could see the 29-year-old become one of Pep Guardiola’s main men.

Shearer included him in his Team of the Week, saying: “Scored his first Premier League goal of the season while playing his part in a clean sheet in front of the defence.”

Getting the recognition he deserves

Gundogan signed for City in 2016 for just £2om and his performances at the club have since gone under the radar. When he initially signed for the Citizens, he did slightly struggle in the absence of Fernandinho at times.

However, his performances over the past 18 months have established himself as an important player within Pep Guardiola’s side, adapting to a deeper-lying role to seamlessly fill the void Fernandinho leaves behind in his absence.

The manager himself, although no stranger to a gushing endorsement, labelled Gundogan as “one of the best signings this club has done in history,” at the beginning of October, per M.E.N.

A common habit that seems to have become second-nature to Gundogan is his ability to intercept the ball in the nick of time, and his progress in that aspect of the game has been fundamental to City’s play.

It’s perhaps no surprise then that at Dortmund in 2011-12 and 2012-13, he was averaging 2.3 and 2.7 tackles per game respectively. Now at City, he seems to be going from strength to strength and even pitching in with some goals – the German has two this season already.

In truth, for £20m, it’s one of the bargains of the last few years and he deserves the recognition from Shearer after another stellar showing against Villa.

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/2BUfEX3