Normally, a footballer’s number is up only once in a day. Not for Jesus Navas.
It was almost 24 hours to the minute from the moment he was substituted at half time against Watford to the point when Manchester City announced they had made another club-record signing.
The Spaniard was replaced on the pitch by Samir Nasri. His place in the pecking order seems threatened by the £54 million (Dh305.7) arrival Kevin de Bruyne. City’s trident of attacking midfielders also includes Raheem Sterling, the £49m addition who was the previous record buy, and David Silva, the man many fans regard as the greatest player in the club’s history.
Navas is the obvious fall guy. Demoting him would be decidedly uncontroversial. The only man who might agonise over it is the one charged with making the decision: Manuel Pellegrini.
The City manager's fondness for Navas is one of his quirks. No footballer made more appearances for the Premier League leaders last season than Navas. Only one played more games in 2013/14. One way or another, as a starter or substitute, Pellegrini invariably finds a way to get Navas on to the pitch.
A habit of remaining fit and an amiable personality contribute to his appeal. It is undeniable that the Spaniard, the only touchline-hugging winger in a squad packed with attacking talents who prefer to veer infield, adds pace and balance. The width he has provided has helped stretch defences in City’s 100 per cent start to the season.
Read more: Richard Jolly writes Manchester United dysfunction increasingly reflecting on Louis van Gaal
Yet it is a greater mystery what else he offers; the one-dimensional nature of his play bemuses. It is not merely that Navas is determined to cross, but that he rarely applies any elevation to it and, as a result, normally picks out the first player in the penalty box, who tends to be a defender.
His limitations seemed summed up at Goodison Park on August 23. He found himself in a glorious position to score. In one of those moments when time seems to stand still, Navas delayed, seemingly desperate to find some reason to cross the ball. Unable to cross, he belatedly and tamely shot straight at Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard’s chest.
At such moments, it is easy to see why he has gone 49 league games without a goal, an extraordinary indictment of a progressive player in such an attacking team. Navas had more shots, 46, than anyone in the Premier League without scoring last season. The surprise, to some extent, is that he tried to score that often.
Perhaps that is evidence of an essential unselfishness that Pellegrini may value, but Navas’s City career has too few defining contributions. Even when he produced one of his finest performances, in January’s 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, he marred it with a dreadful injury-time corner when City were pressing for a winner.
There was a contrast with James Milner, who tended to be City’s resident big-game player and who went unappreciated by Pellegrini for too long. Perhaps the preferential treatment afforded to Navas irked the Englishman, though he was too professional to let on.
Milner decamped to Liverpool while Navas remains at City, where more than £100m has been invested in attacking midfielders. He appears the anomaly: the least flexible and perhaps least talented but probably the quickest and most direct of the group.
He stood out in a similar way for Spain. Perhaps that helped a curiously un-Spanish player amass 34 caps. If Silva shares certain similarities with like-minded compatriots such as Santi Cazorla, Juan Mata, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Xavi, Koke and Isco, Navas again is the anomaly, less tiki-taka than run and cross. His straightforward method makes him a conundrum.
While De Bruyne’s arrival may change matters, Navas has been an ever-present in the team that has played the best football in the division this season. But he is a crosser whose crosses are not accurate enough and an attacker who rarely scores. He is a firm favourite of Pellegrini’s but seems like Aaron Lennon with a World Cup winner’s medal.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
