No prizes for guessing who Manchester Metropolis’s prime scorer is. But the identification of the person second of their standings comes as extra of a shock. Pep Guardiola’s squad accommodates a solitary striker, the ever-present Erling Haaland, however a galaxy of attacking midfield expertise contains loads with a goalscoring pedigree.
However not Mateo Kovacic. Serial Champions League winner, World Cup finalist and neat passer he could also be, however the Croatian tends to be a stranger to scoring. “He’s not a man who scores objectives,” mentioned Guardiola. In a membership profession spanning 553 video games, he had by no means struck twice in a match. He has now, and past the statistical significance – a brace already renders this his most efficient league marketing campaign in a decade – there was an significance to Kovacic’s rescue act.
Metropolis have now prolonged their unbeaten run at house to 50 matches in all competitions – excluding a penalty shootout in opposition to Actual Madrid by which Kovacic did not convert his spot kick – however they had been trailing to Fulham till he intervened. Rodri had a behavior of delivering essential objectives and, if Kovacic is but to persuade he can replicate the entire injured Spaniard’s contribution, he could have adopted that mantle, if just for one afternoon.
His maiden double nonetheless required a sizeable deflection, through Joachim Andersen for his first purpose. His second, nonetheless, confirmed a degree of method to ask questions on why his objectives are such rarities. For now, anyway, Kovacic can replicate that he has thrice as many objectives this season as Phil Foden, or Ilkay Gundogan, or Kevin de Bruyne.
As Metropolis ended a two-game winless run within the Premier League – prolonged by their requirements, if unremarkable for a lot of one other – the match revolved round two gamers whose principal shortcoming is an incapability to search out the online.
However, Adama Traore has a match-winning brace on the Etihad Stadium to his identify, too. However it got here 5 years in the past and in a Wolves shirt. Fulham appeared to observe a lot of the identical components for beating Metropolis at house, with our bodies behind the ball and blistering pace on the break. “He’s unstoppable, that man,” mentioned Guardiola. The issue was that Traore illustrated why his 379-game profession has yielded simply 32 objectives. He had three golden possibilities. He missed all three.
Marco Silva deployed the Spaniard on Fulham’s left, isolating him in opposition to an overpowered Rico Lewis. Traore brushed the smaller, slighter teenager apart when he first converged on purpose, however Ederson saved. Then, when discovered by Alex Iwobi in a equally promising place, he skied a shot. When Pep Guardiola summoned Kyle Walker, in search of a specialist to cease Traore, the out-of-form captain was as an alternative outpaced with embarrassing ease – compounding the Englishman’s poor begin to the season – however Ederson once more denied Traore. The goalkeeper was Metropolis’s different match-winner.
Jeremy Doku shares sure similarities with Traore. The Belgian, too, can really feel an unstoppable, mercurial dribbler. However he had an finish product, unleashing a rocket from distance to seal victory and imply that at the least one in every of Guardiola’s substitutions labored.
Silva’s beginning 11, sacrificing Emile Smith Rowe for the solidity of Sander Berge, giving them a platform in midfield they usually may have prevailed. They had been expertly configured, enjoying to a sport plan. “We have now 4 clear possibilities to attain,” rued Silva. “Trying on the possibilities we create and evaluating with Metropolis we deserve extra from the sport. We have now to be happy with the efficiency however sad with the end result.”
They led through an excellent purpose. The previous Manchester United midfielder Andreas Pereira volleyed the end however the inspiration got here from Raul Jimenez, improvising a backheeled cross.
Metropolis regarded vulnerable on the break and Guardiola tinkered together with his defence in a quest to halt Fulham, bringing on first Walker after which John Stones, however they nonetheless felt fragile. Fulham scored a late second from a mix of two replacements, Reiss Nelson organising Rodrigo Muniz.
Nevertheless, what Metropolis more and more have is a capability to come back from behind. They’ve trailed in every of their 4 house league video games and emerged with 10 factors. There was a component of fortune to their leveller as Kovacic’s drive was deflected in off Joachim Andersen. His second was extra exact, Bernardo Silva chesting down Foden’s cross and Kovacic curling a shot into the underside nook of the online. Like his opening-day strike at Chelsea, it confirmed his class. It additionally meant the final guests to win on the Etihad stay Brentford, a half-century of video games in the past and earlier than the 2022 World Cup. But if the rare scorer to search out his taking pictures boots had been Traore and never Kovacic, Metropolis’s run could have ended at 49.
