Riyad Mahrez has completed his long-awaited move to Manchester City from Leicester City, signing a five-year deal with the Premier League champions.
The Citizens have paid a club-record £60m for the Algerian’s services having failed to agree on a fee with the East Midlands club in January.
Priced up at £9.0m in Fantasy Premier League this season, Mahrez is a cheaper route into the City midfield than new team-mates Raheem Sterling (£11.0m), Kevin De Bruyne (£10.0m) and Leroy Sane (£9.5m), although David Silva (£8.5m) and Bernardo Silva (£7.5m) cost less than the former Leicester man.
Mahrez accumulated 195 points in FPL last season, more than Sane (179), David Silva (169) and Bernardo Silva (112) but fewer than De Bruyne (209) and Sterling (229). Mahrez’s average of 5.4 points per match (PPM) was also inferior to four of his new midfield colleagues; Sterling’s 6.9 PPM was the high mark among Pep Guardiola’s squad.
It has to be said, of course, that Mahrez played in a side that finished eight places below the 2017/18 Premier League winners, scored 50 fewer goals than the Citizens and won 20 fewer matches.
Mahrez’s PPM, indeed, was the best of any player who played for a club outside the top six. Mohamed Salah (32) and Sterling (18) were the only midfielders who scored more goals than Mahrez (12) last season, while the Algerian international’s total of 13 assists – a better haul than he managed in the title-winning campaign of 2015/16 – was inferior to only De Bruyne (18), Sterling (17) and Sane (15).
Mahrez joining such a free-scoring club is an exciting prospect for both Manchester City fans and FPL managers, although the security of starts we took for granted at Leicester – Mahrez missed only five matches in the last three seasons combined – is no longer a given. Mahrez’s arrival would also seem set to impact on the incumbent City midfield; Sterling, Sane and Bernardo Silva would appear most at risk of reduced playing time.
A left-footer who spent much of his time at Leicester playing as an inverted right-winger and cutting inside, Mahrez has also been deployed in the “number 10” role in his four years at the King Power Stadium and provides Guardiola with further options in the attacking midfield positions.
Upon signing for the Manchester club, Mahrez said:
Competition is part of football and it is good because everyone can improve. You can improve yourself and the squad.
Pep is a big manager who has won a lot of things and made history at this club. I wanted to work under him and to play in this club. I didn’t hesitate at all. He wanted me.
The History
Born in France but of Algerian stock, Mahrez began his football career with local club AAS Sarcelles before signing a professional contract with Quimper at the age of 18 in 2009.
After one season with the fourth-tier French club in which he made 27 league appearances and scored one goal, Mahrez departed for Le Havre. Appearing mostly for the French club’s reserve side in his first two seasons, Mahrez made his Ligue II debut in July 2011 but would have to wait until the 2012/13 season before consolidating a first-team place.
Mahrez’s breakthrough campaign saw him appear 34 times for the second-tier club, score on four occasions and assist a further six goals.
Leicester and chief scout Steve Walsh came calling midway through the 2013/14 season, snapping up the Algerian for a now-unfathomable £400,000.
Mahrez had registered five assists for Le Havre in his final half-season with the club and was to create a further five goals for his new employers as the Foxes secured promotion to the Premier League as Championship winners.
Part of the Leicester side that won seven of their final nine matches to avoid relegation back to the Football League in 2014/15, Mahrez’s modest attacking returns (four goals, five assists) gave only the slightest of hints as to what was to follow the very next season.
Mahrez scored on 17 occasions (13 of which were before Christmas) and supplied 11 assists as the Foxes swept to the most unexpected of Premier League title wins, remaining at the summit from Gameweek 22 onwards and finishing ten points clear of the chasing pack.
The Algerian’s starting price of £5.5m that season was, arguably, the biggest bargain in FPL history and his ownership approached the 70% mark at its highest.
Six goals and four assists were underwhelming returns in 2016/17 as the Foxes floundered to a 12th-place finish after briefly flirting with the drop, but the Algerian recaptured some of his best form last season as he played a part in 44.6% of Leicester’s 56 league goals.
Mahrez’s run of eight goals and seven assists between Gameweeks 8 and 24 was the Algerian international at his scintillating best, though the 27-year-old playmaker’s form understandably suffered after Manchester City’s failed January transfer window bid.
Mahrez has 39 caps for his country and has scored on eight occasions for the national side.
The Prospects
City’s enticing-looking start to the season (ars, HUD, wlv, NEW, FUL, cdf, BHA) is sure to add to Mahrez’s appeal, as does the fact that all of the Citizens’ senior attacking midfielders bar Mahrez and Sane have been on international duty this summer at the World Cup. Sterling and De Bruyne, in particular, will only be returning home after the third-place play-off between England and Belgium on Saturday. Sterling’s customary position on the right flank is the most obvious route for Mahrez into the City side if Guardiola opts to ease the jaded England international back into domestic action at the start of the season.
Mahrez played more minutes last season than any of City’s midfielders but had fewer penalty box touches than Sterling, Sane and David Silva. Sterling’s total number of touches in the opposition area was indeed more than twice as many as Mahrez managed (126).
Mahrez’s minutes-per-chance average of 40.5 minutes was inferior only to Sterling and De Bruyne’s rates, while Sterling, Sane and David Silva also had more “big chances” than the Algerian over the course of the season.
Sterling was the only City midfielder to have more shots inside the box than Mahrez last season, though it is noteworthy how often Mahrez chanced his arm from distance: while 77% of Sterling’s attempts on goal were from within 18 yards, only 52% of the Algerian’s efforts were hit inside the opposition area.
Bernardo Silva was the only City midfielder whose shots were more accurate (i.e. on target) than Mahrez’s, though the Algerian’s goal conversion rate of 16.4% was bettered by both Silvas, Sterling and Sane.
Mahrez created a chance once every 52 minutes last season, a rate inferior to De Bruyne, Sane, David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Sterling. Of those five City midfielders, only Bernardo Silva supplied fewer big chances for his team-mates than Mahrez.
The caveat worth repeating here is that Mahrez recorded all of the above figures while playing for a statistically inferior side last season. As well as scoring 50 fewer goals than Guardiola’s side, Leicester had over 200 fewer attempts on goal, almost half as many big chances and over 600 fewer penalty box touches. The Foxes’ average possession rate of 47.2% was way down on the Citizens’ league-best 72.7%.
Mahrez will have to adapt to playing for a team who enjoy prolonged use of the ball; all four of Leicester’s seasons in the Premier League have seen the Foxes average sub-50% possession statistics, even their title-winning campaign of 2015/16.
The Algerian will also have to adjust to the fact that he is no longer the stand-out player in a side that is built around his strengths; Mahrez will have to adapt to City’s footballing ethos, not vice-versa.
De Bruyne’s prominent role for City at set-piece situations last season means that Mahrez will have to cede, or more likely share, corner and free-kick duties, too.
All that being said, Mahrez and City could be an explosive match. Priced £2.0m cheaper than Sterling, the Algerian will likely tempt many Fantasy managers early on given City’s favourable run of opening fixtures and the fact that he is one of a handful of players in Guardiola’s squad who has been rested over the summer.
While rotation is always a risk with Guardiola, especially around UEFA Champions League fixtures, Sterling and De Bruyne showed last season that Pep will avoid chopping and changing his form players too much. De Bruyne started 36 of City’s 38 league matches in 2017/18, while, from Gameweek 11 onwards, Sterling started all but two of the league matches in which he was available for selection.
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