Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki: ‘I’m an old-school footballer.’ | OneFootball

Rayan Cherki (22) has enjoyed a strong start to life at Manchester City. The Frenchman joined Les Cityzens from formative club Olympique Lyonnais prior to the FIFA Club World Cup and has hit the ground running. 

Despite an injury having ruled him out of a portion of the campaign, he has already played 13 games for Pep Guardiola’s side, making eight goal contributions (four goals, four assists) in that time. However, the France international is not necessarily measuring his success at the Etihad Stadium in stats.

Cherki looks to repeat Lyon feat

Asked what his objectives are this season, he told TF1 that he simply wanted to “enjoy [himself]”. Pushed on whether he has a statistical goal, he responded: “I’m not a stats guy. I think that you can see that in the way that I play football. I’m an old-school footballer, and the ‘old-school’ didn’t look at stats. I know that nowadays, that element is very important.”

Pushed, Cherki then said he wanted to be “around or above” his numbers from last season. At Lyon, he scored 13 goals and registered 21 assists in 48 appearances in all competitions, including making 12 goal contributions in 12 UEFA Europa League games.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle