Manchester City quickly rubbed their hands by unearthing Abdukodir Khusanov. After a year and a half and only 31 games played with RC Lens, the defender moved from Energetik-BGU and a 450,000 euro transfer to the Premier League and one of the best clubs in the world for €40 million. The English club then offered itself one of the greatest hopes in this position, only 20 years old, who needed to be supported in his development. If he did not start as a starter, the number of matches played by the Cityzens over a season already guaranteed him a certain amount of playing time.
The beginnings were also rather satisfactory for an element without much experience, quickly propelled into the deep end. “He still needs to improve, but he’s 20 years old. I have seen very fast players, but he is one of them. People love it. He is quiet, he doesn’t complain and he is so humble. And I’m sure our fans will love it», Judged Pep Guardiola last February. But since the spring and the return of the main injuries, the Uzbek has played less, much less in fact. He did not take part in any of the final nine Premier League games at the end of last season, nor did he take part in the FA Cup semi-final and final.
Ankle injury and complicated recovery
In other words, Khusanov did not appear once between March 30 and the Club World Cup (only 1 appearance) with the Sky Blues. It’s not much better since the restart in August. However, he started as a starter, both as a right back and as a central defender. Problem, after 6 matches in all competitions for only 381 minutes played, the 21-year-old injured his ankle at the end of September. Since then, the recovery has been more complicated than expected, both at club and national level, for several reasons, starting with the strong competition in Manchester.
Matheus Nunes won the right-back position thanks to his good performances. A trained midfielder, the Brazilian is the very pleasant surprise of this exercise. He is a constant threat on his side and has made huge strides in defensive work. He even passed Rico Lewis, second in the hierarchy. In the middle, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, John Stones and Nathan Aké are competing for the two places, leaving crumbs to Khusanov, who returned to competition at the end of October. He was also worrying during the hour played against Swansea in the League Cup (3-1 victory for City).
Expelled with Uzbekistan
“He looked to be Nunes’ main competition at right-back, but injury dampened his momentum and he was disappointing against Swansea», even summed up the Manchester Evening News in his assessment of the first months of the season. For some observers, there was even talk of a possible reinforcement this winter, particularly on the right of the defense if Matheus Nunes were to get injured. “Right-back seems to be the most obvious area to strengthen, and they were looking for a player in that position last summer.”wrote the MEN during this international break, questioning the real versatility of Khusanov.
The latter took advantage of the international break to make his return to the selection. He played the entire friendly against Egypt (2-0) in the central hinge, before being started again yesterday against Iran (0-0, 4-3 tab). This time it didn’t go well for him. On a risky pass from a teammate, the Uzbek rushed to dry the opposing attacker who could go alone at goal. Expelled, he left his partners with ten for the last remaining half hour. Not enough to give him confidence when it’s time to resume with his club. The management of Manchester City also believes that it will be necessary to repatriate Vitor Reis next season, he who is on loan to Girona.
