The best City player in the first 45 was Ake - but even that’s clutching at straws. It was a shit performance for most of the game, and Garcia was as bad as anyone else in the first 45 - and alongside Mendy and Rodri, amongst our worst for the second 45. A key architect of our complete collapse.
As a senior player, we don’t really know what his ‘true colours’ are yet. What’s worrying me is, in a couple of big games recently, he’s shown a mental weakness I didn’t think was there before - Lyon being another key example. Despite the fact he’s too short, not strong enough and too slow to fit the mould of the modern CB, I felt there was definitely a player in there - and wanted us to keep him. His mentality, his calmness under pressure and his vision were the three things that stood out for me.
The first two seem to have evaporated - leaving us with a player who’s good at passing the ball, but not much else.
My concern is that, since he informed the club he wanted out, all sense of professionalism and application has gone. Which is disappointing, and doesn’t show the maturity beyond his years I felt was a key quality of his.
Frankly, I’ll be happy to see the back of him now - and have serious doubts you’re getting the strong character I felt you definitely were when Pep announced he was off.
No doubt he’ll try a lot harder at Barca - his club, after all - and he’s still a kid, so has a lot of improvement in him. But his head has gone - so he’s a liability for City at the moment.
Good luck to the kid - but making out it’s pure sour grapes for any City fan to say “you’re welcome to him” misses the deterioration in his performances and his professionalism since all this shit started.
