Manchester City player ratings from their 1-1 draw in Nottingham

Phil Foden – 7

In Phil Foden’s return to the starting XI for Manchester City taking the place of in-form Riyad Mahrez, he looked every bit of his old self, even if he was playing on the right to accommodate for Jack Grealish at LW/LM. He constantly took up good positions in between the lines, took on defenders, and worked his way into the box unnoticed at times.

Foden completed the most dribbles of any City player (3) and tormented Renand Lodi at times throughout the match. The one big drawback for Foden here is he missed a great chance to either find the net himself or play the ball across the goal for Haaland and didn’t manage to do either.

Jack Grealish – 7 

In the battle between Grealish and Aurier, Grealish won. As is always the case, he is so tricky with his footwork. He’ll drag you in just to the point where you think you can win the ball, and he’ll shift it away at the last-minute drawing fouls. He did just that, allowing City to set up set pieces from great positions, primarily on the left-hand side.

Erling Haaland – 5

Had an absolute shocker today. Known for his clinical finishing, today he was anything but. Over his career, and now at Manchester City, he was learned to work with little service and still he puts up incredible numbers. Today, he missed two clear chances, in the span of a couple of seconds. He hit the woodwork with one and skied the follow-up on his aforementioned shot to the shock of everybody at City Ground.

Simply put, had one of those gone in, it could’ve changed the outcome of this game. To his credit, that could be said of a few others in this Manchester City team today.

SUBS 

Julian Alvarez – N/A

Similar to Ake, his introduction into this game was too delayed for the World Cup winner to make a difference.

Nathan Ake – N/A 

Brought on to allow other players to foray further forwards, but far too late.