One thing I've noted he is very good at is picking the right pass on a break. Of all our players, he I think is the best w/ the ball when we are breaking, yes, even more so than DeBruyne who is excellent at long passes but can pick the wrong pass on a break; Gundogan though is very good on the break. Very good at picking the right pass w/ the right pace.
Just goes to show that people can see very different things watching the same player, as I think Ilkay was actually one of the worst of our midfielders when it came to decision-making and passing on the counter last season. He had the tendency of running with the ball far too long, until well after the passing opportunities/channels had dissolved, and then, realising his error, either trying to dance his way in (often losing the ball), or just stopping and making a simple pass laterally or backward, requiring us to reset. There were occasions when Leroy, Kun, Gabby, and Kev were visibly annoyed by it.
It’s actually something I (and others) wrote about on several occasions and I am fairly sure if you put together a compilation of every time he got the ball on a counter last season, well more than 50% of the instances would reflect that frustrating play, some excruciatingly so. There were a few games when he was at his full-flowing best, but they were not the norm in my mind. For me, yesterday was also a great example as he made that wonderful pass that setup Bernardo to slip in Kun for our second, but also had three or four instances (during his relatively short cameo) where he doddled on the ball (when Diaz played him in with the nutmeg on the Chelsea defender), picked the wrong pass (a few occassions on the break), or tried to be too clever (the attempted three yard knock on for Kun when he should have just taken a shot).
All of that said, many of us contended that it was primarily down to confidence, which he was still trying to regain after a horrible start to his City career, as he was once the king of counters at Dortmund. This summer may or may not have helped him with that, given the distractions and unpleasantness, but it does seem City supporters backing him does have a positive affect. Perhaps this year his decision-making will improve and he will be able to put those injury (and off-the-pitch) issues behind him.
Even with these frustrations I would not sell him as it would be very difficult (and expensive) to get another midfielder with his skill set, so I don’t think it is worth the effort and cost this late in the transfer window.
