Kolkata: For both his goals in the League Cup final at Wembley on Sunday, Nico O’Reilly was being marked by players shorter and smaller than him. Martin Zubimendi is 12 centimetres shorter and could do little when O’Reilly swooped in front of the Arsenal midfielder to put Manchester City in front. Neither could Bukayo Saka, who is 1.78m in his socks, a full 15cm shorter than O’Reilly. Size matters.
What also does is O’Reilly’s ability to time his attacking runs into the box. It is not a skill that is usually part of a left back’s repertoire but under Pep Guardiola, players have been known to add strings to their bow. O’Reilly is the latest in the list that is long and varied. It includes John Stones moving into midfield, Philipp Lahm becoming as adept a midfielder as he was a full back, Jerome Boateng improving his passing range and Robert Lewandowski saying he started to understand football “in a different way” when he was with Guardiola at Bayern Munich. “Not just as a footballer but a little bit like a coach.”
For most of his time at the Manchester City academy which he joined when he was eight, O’Reilly was an attacking midfielder. For the City reserve team he scored spectacular goals against Middlesbrough and Manchester City. Explains the instinct to make runs into the box of the kind that are the hardest to track. This, in a match where Saka is opposition player on O’Reilly’s side of the pitch.
“Bit of disbelief seeing all the fans cheering like that when I scored those goals. Really a good feeling and a great birthday weekend,” said O’Reilly, who turned 21 on Saturday. “My whole family came down today. They are all in the stands and I know they will be buzzing. I can’t wait to celebrate with them.”
In an elite club whose squad is like a union of nationalities, O’Reilly is a local player who comes from a family of City supporters. He even has Manchester’s area phone code tattooed on his arm. “That’s where I grew up – Manchester. It’s me, how I became who I am today,” he said in “The Guardian”.
While a lot is made of Manchester City’s vast resources, rightly, it also needs to be pointed out that they have an academy that keeps on giving. Step forward, Phil Foden and Rico Lewis. Twelve academy players signed professional contracts with the first team for the first time this season.
O’Reilly signed a new five-year deal last September, months after his fourth team appearance in the FA Cup against Salford. He was used as left-back, a position he has said he is learning on the job. His debut had come in the League Cup in 2024, as a midfielder. He has since played in central defence, central midfield, left back and left wing.
“Nico has given us the physicality we need in the middle,” Guardiola has said. On Sunday, the City manager said: “He started as left back (this season) and impressed a lot. He can play in many roles. He scored two fantastic goals.”
Last November, O’Reilly made his England debut and with national team head coach Thomas Tuchel in attendance, his performance ahead of the last friendlies before the World Cup will do the big, strong man’s prospects no harm.
Like Foden and unlike Jadon Sancho, Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers, who left in search of game time, O’Reilly stayed on at City. As per Transfermarkt, his stock has risen from €7m to €50m in 12 months.
“(It’s an) unbelievable feeling to win a final and to beat this team. We know how good they are,” O’Reilly told Sky Sports. “We need to build on it now, it’ll give us momentum.”
Second-placed City trail Arsenal by nine points with a game in hand in the Premier League and play Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-final on April 4. Fifteen days later, they host Arsenal in what could be a pivotal match of the league.
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Pep Guardiola
Manchester City
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