Who has been the best Manchester City player this season? Normally, the discourse revolves around championship winners and the critical moments of a trophy-winning season in which Pep Guardiola’s team outperformed all expectations.
That is not the case for 2025, as the team’s form has plummeted since the autumn of 2024, leaving them struggling to meet even the most basic season goals. That was completed, both transfer windows were active, and Guardiola ended the year in a much better place than he was a year before. Reported By Manchester Evening News.
Many people are responsible for this, although some contributions have been more significant than others. As well as Rayan Cherki’s start and Gianluigi Donnarumma’s impact, it appears that the most valuable players at the Etihad in 2025 will have been those who have been there for the entire time.
That has included both good and terrible, and the four picked have undoubtedly experienced ups and downs over the year. However, they all stand out for different ways as players who have been critical to City’s success in 2025, despite a rocky start.
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Nico Gonzalez
When he played against Newcastle in February, Guardiola compared him to a mini-Messi, and fans dared to dream after a rocky start at Leyton Orient. Gonzalez pulled City through a difficult period between February and April, but then fell out of favour and only appeared briefly near the end of the season in the Champions League-winning squad.
That trend has continued this season, but with Mateo Kovacic and Rodri sidelined, Gonzalez has quietly emerged as one of the team’s most crucial players.
Erling Haaland
He was the first to say that he could have done better last season, and letting up that penalty in the FA Cup final will not have been easy, but he has struck the ground running this season, scoring almost 30 goals in the calendar year – 34 including three in the Club World Cup. Surprisingly, his first goal for City on a neutral ground came against Al Ain, and he has since scored both at home and away against Real Madrid in 2025.
Bernardo Silva
And here come the pitchforks… Last season, Bernardo Silva was erroneously portrayed as a symbol of the team’s demise, despite the fact that he and Ilkay Gundogan were two of the only players who remained healthy when everyone else sank. Guardiola saw enough in his Portuguese warrior to ask him to be his captain for the season, and Silva regarded it as his responsibility to restore the standards in the dressing room that he believed had been lost.
Nico O’Reilly
O’Reilly, the breakout player of the second half of the season, was introduced from the bench in the second half of an FA Cup quarterfinal against Bournemouth, which turned the course for Guardiola. They discovered a new way to function as a team, and City won six of the next seven games with the youngster on the roster.
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