Manchester City defender Josko Gvardiol has now properly arrived at the Etihad Stadium, and we are making the case for him to be named Player of the Month at the club for April.
The Croatia international has had an interesting first campaign at City, following his £77 million transfer from RB Leipzig last summer.
He arrived at the club with a big reputation following his exploits in Germany and at the World Cup in Qatar, and City fans were extremely excited by his signing.
Gvardiol had a decent start, but did have a bit of a rough time just before Christmas. His performance in the 4-4 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge was poor, and he actually issued an apology after that game, although that was not necessary.
But poor displays have rather been few and far between for the 22-year-old, and in recent weeks, he has really stepped up his game – and there is an argument for him to win Manchester City Player of the Month for April…
Josko Gvardiol enjoyed a really solid April for Manchester City
April was another pretty good month for City, although the defeat to Real Madrid on penalties in the Champions League quarter-final was tough to take, and some are still getting over that result.
But City are finishing the season fairly strongly. In April the club played eight matches – five in the Premier League, the two legs against Real Madrid in the Champions League, and the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
Gvardiol, who was in and out of the side in the early parts of the season, was heavily utilised by Pep Guardiola across these eight games, playing in all except the Chelsea clash. This is an indicator of the trust the manager now has in him.
Gvardiol started the month really well with a strong performance in the 4-1 win over Aston Villa, and the impressive performances continued.
Just recently Gvardiol has found his goalscoring mojo. The £200,000-a-week ace scored an absolute rocket in the first leg against Real Madrid, and followed that up days later with his first Premier League goal for the club against Luton Town. He also grabbed himself an assist against the Hatters.
On Sunday, Gvardiol scored his third of the month with a bullet header in a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
But it hasn’t just been about his offensive threat. Gvardiol has been a solid operator at left-back and his Fotmob average ratings are pretty impressive. His lowest score of the month was 7.4 against Brighton, which is still high.
For the month, he has averaged an impressive 7.8 rating.
Gvardiol deserves to be City’s April Player of the Month
So a strong month for Gvardiol, and the club have now opened the vote for the April Player of the Month – and the Croatian would be a deserving winner.
The contenders for the latest award are Gvardiol, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden, and Foden is likely to garner a lot of votes from fans and understandably so.
The 23-year-old was also fabulous last month, scoring six goals, including a hat-trick against Aston Villa.
But Gvardiol needs his flowers. He has come on leaps and bounds playing in that unfamiliar left-back role, and the star has been extremely consistent over the last few weeks and is serving up a goal threat.
As pundit Leroy Rosenior said earlier this week, he is now starting to ‘flourish’, and it would be great to see the City fans come together to reward his efforts.