Pep Guardiola handed Rayan Cherki his debut for Manchester City in the FIFA Club World Cup clash against Wydad.
The France international was fairly quiet on his first outing for the Citizens – following a £30.5m move to the Etihad Stadium from Lyon – received the lowest rating of any Manchester City player to start the game with a 6.9 ranking, besides Rico Lewis, who was given 6.8 on SofaScore after his red card.
Guardiola even seemed annoyed at Cherki in some cases, as the Frenchman lost possession when attempting some stylish flicks which failed to come off.
However, that was not the only instance of frustration on show against Wydad, as Rayan Cherki himself expressed discontent at Phil Foden not once, but twice.
Rayan Cherki questions Phil Foden after being ignored twice
During the opening 45 minutes in Philadelphia, the England international had several chances to pass to the Lyon academy graduate in promising positions, but declined to do so.
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Cherki eventually grew frustrated, at one point standing square on with both arms outstretched, looking baffled by a lack of service from Foden.
After the Manchester City No.47 quickly got the ball back and then ignored the Manchester City No.25 again, he could be seen throwing his arms up in frustration.
We are unable to embed the footage due to copyright reasons, but you can see it for yourself here on X (previously known as Twitter) by clicking the link.
Of course, it is still early days, and Guardiola will require some time on the training pitch to get Cherki firing alongside Foden, but the first impression of this pairing suggests it might take a while.
Erling Haaland may need to be present for Rayan Cherki to shine
As aforesaid, it is still early days for the 21-year-old at Manchester City, but from his 60 minutes on the pitch against Wydad, it was clear he would benefit from Erling Haaland playing ahead of him.
In the aforementioned video, Omar Marmoush – who was selected as a lone striker by Guardiola – is outside of the box and stood next to Cherki, allowing Wydad to push men higher up, as there were actually no Manchester City players in the area whatsoever.
This limited the space available for Cherki to roam in his preferred No.10 area, which perhaps led to his tendency to do those first-time flicks that irked Guardiola, desperate to create a bit of space for himself to operate in.
However, with a proper No.9 and a focal point in Haaland occupying defenders and pinning men back, we think the new £30.5m signing will enjoy himself a lot more.