Manchester City Season in Review: Gael Clichy

During the close season, Man City Square is going to review each member of the 2015/2016 Manchester City squad and grade them for their year. Next up, number 22 – Gael Clichy

Gael Clichy is an enigma. The Manchester City left back is, at times, the very definition of a defensive box of chocolates and they are either way past their sell by date or fresh and delicious. Rarely in between. At some clubs this kind of wild and unstable approach to the game, as likely to commit a series of game losing clangers as to be impenetrable wall, would be considered a risk not worth taking. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2015/2016 season at the Etihad.

If there’s one thing City have struggled to find in their back four it’s consistency. Mr Consistency himself – the skipper Vincent Kompany – was anything but, managing to play in a mere 13 league games all year. Then you’ve got Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala and, I know you guys are excited for our reviews on their performances this year, they seemingly compete for who can be the bigger liability at the least opportune moment. And finally you have Bacary Sagna and Clichy and they are, well, pretty good on the whole. At least in comparison.

Certainly this applies in Clichy’s case. His competition this year was Aleksander Kolarov who, when we were forced to endure his presence at left back, limped lifelessly around the park looking for the ice cream he dropped. I can imagine a more spirited, and perhaps not much less inept, performance if I was playing there than Kolarov. It’s like he knows he’s gone at the end of the year and, hey, why bother?

Against this backdrop, Clichy really only has to turn up and not be self-destructively bad to be an improvement. Unfortunately, there were times he didn’t quite manage it. Most recently his near-own goal, which ended up in a goal regardless, in our penultimate game of the season at home to Arsenal. Misjudging a routine head-back-to-goal from a cross, Clichy sent it way too wide for Joe Hart, and anyone not named Stretch Armstrong, and it only just grazed the post for a corner. Olivier Giroud would then score thanks to catastrophic marking from Mangala, fancy that.

All that said however, Clichy has, in general, improved as the season has gone on. It’s hard to find any positives in the Blues’ back four right now, but if there was he would certainly be one of them. When he plays well, after all, he really is that impenetrable wall. Perhaps the Arsenal gaffe sticks out more because we thought we saw the back of such amateurish errors from Clichy and we came to depend on him.

Certainly for incoming manager Pep Guardiola, Clichy presents an easy and reliable option. Guardiola will need to plug the holes that sank the ship way too many times this year and Clichy, for better or worse, is one of the smaller ones. There’s only so many defenders available and honestly Clichy has shown enough this year, if only just, to justify his place in the squad for next.

In fact, statistically at least, there’s much to be said for what Clichy did get right this year. Another injury candidate, he made only 20 starts on the year and provided 1 assist. While that isn’t stellar, his pass accuracy on the year of 80.9% in all competitions is quite good and his actual defensive stats are even better. On average, Clichy made 4 interceptions and 3 clearances per game. Kolarov meanwhile managed to average only 1.6 interceptions and 2.4 clearances each outing.

The point is we are better when Clichy is in and Kolarov is out. Would we be better with another left back in? Maybe yes, maybe no, but of all the improvements that need to be made in the squad, Clichy’s position shouldn’t be a priority. With that in mind, I’d rate this year as a relatively positive, if unspectacular, year as a whole for Gael and feel that even with his warts he’s worthy of a place in the team next year and a 6.5 rating from me. The former being worth just a bit more, of course.