How Nico O’Reilly Became a Vital Cog in Manchester City’s Title Chase
Nico O’Reilly is proving to be one of Pep Guardiola’s most crucial players this season, having played the 5th-most minutes of any player in this Man City squad in the Premier League, playing a total of 32 matches ahead of the likes of Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki, while having made a total of 41 appearances and counting in all competitions (data from Transfermarkt and FBref). But as we all know, Pep just doesn’t give minutes to anyone in the squad; you have to justify why you should be in the starting eleven.
In this current chase for the title, O’Reilly has been able to do just that firstly scoring a brace against Arsenal in the EFL Cup Final as Man City went on to lift the trophy, and then he scored again Chelsea to help keep City’s title chase alive but Nico O’Reilly does way more than just scoring important goals as he’ll is pivotal to a lot of things Man City look to do in the attacking phase of the game. But how? You might ask, and that’s what I’m here to break down.
Firstly, the most important thing to understand about what makes O’Reilly so special is his skill set. O’Reilly has a very good understanding of the game, which allows him to have outstanding positioning on the pitch. It is through this that O’Reilly truly affects the game understanding when to overlap and provide width, underlap and draw defenders away, or even making late runs into the box to get on the end of crosses and convert them into goals.
Some examples of this would include the recent match against Everton in the 18th minute when O’Reilly moves from out wide to underlap and attack the half space drawing a defender with him allowing Doku to be one on one his man and once Doku is able to beat his defender he picks out O’Reilly who is able to turn his defender before playing the ball across the box however it does get intercepted and goes out for a corner.
Again in the 43rd minute, Man City have the ball near their own goal with 6 players behind to help out in build up against Everton’s 5 man press and Man City are able to beat the press and play the ball into midfield and the player who receives it is none other than Nico O’Reilly who is able to progress the ball and lay it off to Doku.
From there, O’Reilly continues his run until he’s Man City’s most advanced player in the attack drawing defenders off Haaland allowing Haaland to be unmarked as the cutback is played but unfortunately the ball doesn’t get to Haaland but However Haaland and O’Reilly’s movement in the box does allow Doku to score and put City ahead.
But it’s not only in possession where O’Reilly shines but defensively as well, as O’Reilly’s physical profile allows him to overpower most Premier League wingers, and his good aerial ability allows him to win his duels against his man. Looking back to the EFL Cup Final, I feel his defensive actions in that match don’t get enough recognition because of the brace he scored,.
However, when you look at it again, O’Reilly helped in keeping a clean sheet, having won 7 of his 15 ground duels and all 3 of his aerial duels, plus he only got dribbled past once during the final. O’Reilly managed to pull all this off while routinely being found in the box and being Man City’s most dangerous attacking threat. O’Reilly actually averages the most tackles per game of any Man City player in the current squad, with 2.1 tackles averaged per 90 and 3.0 ball recoveries averaged per 90(data from Sofascore) in the Premier League.
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Ultimately, what makes O’Reilly so unique isn’t necessarily his position but rather his role within this current Man City team. O’Reilly has a very good technique and is very composed whenever he has the ball. This is why Pep has given him so much game time this season, and when we break down the 32 appearances he has made in the Premier League so far, only 23 of them have been in left back, with Pep playing O’Reilly in midfield and even on the wing, and despite that, O’Reilly consistently delivers for his team.
Even when O’Reilly plays in left back, he often tucks into the midfield, makes overlapping and underlapping runs, and even gets into the box to score goals, and these movements usually cause confusion among opposition defenders, allowing other players around him to shine more. The best example of this would be Jeremy Doku, who usually finds himself in 2 v 1 situations in the final 3rd, but now, due to O’Reilly’s presence, teams can’t afford to do this because of the threat O’Reilly also poses in the box, often allowing Doku to have 1v1 situations.
Currently, O’Reilly has the 6th most goal contributions in the Premier League with 5 goals and 3 assists of any player in the Man City squad, and should only continue to improve in the coming seasons, seeing as how he performs to his Expected goals (5.44) and Expected assists(2.36), plus he is still very young and still has a lot of room for improvement. I honestly feel that whether Man City manage to win the title or finish second, O’Reilly deserves the PFA Young Player of the Season award.