It’s been an unusual season for last year’s top scorer, with goals and starts much harder to come by – even though Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus departed to reduce the competition on the right wing.
It’s not uncommon for a player to follow one good year with a bad one at Manchester City, especially given the high standards Pep Guardiola sets, and it seems that Mahrez is this year’s player to drop off slightly. He will know full well of what is needed to return to his best form, and he helpfully has a six-week break during the World Cup to reset. With that in mind, how he finishes the fixtures before that break could be crucial.
Mahrez has been criticised by his manager this season for his physical condition, while he has also been seemingly taken off penalty duty following consecutive Champions League misses from 12 yards in the goalless draws against Copenhagen and Borussia Dortmund – with Guardiola later explaining why Mahrez keeps missing from the spot.
A miss when well placed against Brighton seemed to sum up his fortunes as the Seagulls went up the other end and scored to set up a trickier second half than it would have been had Mahrez made the scoreline 3-0. It seems that things just aren’t going his way this season.
So it wasn’t much of a surprise to see him start the dead-rubber against Sevilla as he has fallen out of the list of key players who were prioritised for a rest. It was a chance to play his way back into form in a game where the pressure was off.
His first-half performance wasn’t particularly notable, although there were signs of the Algerian trying to shoot his way back into form with a couple of wayward shots. Like Jack Grealish on the opposite side, Mahrez struggled against a stubborn Sevilla defence, but a tactical switch in the second half created more space for all of City’s attackers and he benefitted from the change in system.
He was not involved in City’s first two goals, but was in the right place to score when Julian Alvarez robbed possession and fed Mahrez in space. It wasn’t a difficult finish, and one he’d be expected to at least find the target with, yet given Mahrez’s recent misses it was not guaranteed. That he killed the game was an advance on what he’s not been able to manage in previous appearances.
Mahrez, and his coaches, will hope that the confidence can flood back now – but he was left on the bench when City needed a goal against Fulham. It was a setback after his progress made against Sevilla, and now he has just one more week to impress before the World Cup. Given the two remaining fixtures, his form may limit him to more action in the Carabao Cup vs Chelsea than in the Premier League against Brentford.
After that, a six-week break for the World Cup could be a blessing in disguise for Mahrez, who can take stock of his season so far, work on that physical condition, and put himself ahead of other teammates who may have been playing at the top level for the previous month. He would obviously prefer to be in Qatar captaining Algeria, but he can instead make the most of the opportunity after a stuttering season.
His goal against Sevilla should restore some confidence ahead of the final week of fixtures before the World Cup. One or two more good performances should send him into that break in a far better state of mind, ready to kick on when the season resumes.