Player Focus: Bony Still Yet to Convince as Stand-in Striker at City

It is a question that has defined many a career, and could yet decide this season - especially given the paucity of top strikers available and the amount of clubs looking to upgrade in that exact position in the January window.

If a forward has a good scoring rate at a certain level, and in a certain club set-up, what are the chances he can replicate it elsewhere? What are the chances he can score more meaningful goals, in more pressurised occasions, in a different shape perhaps not necessarily best for his strengths. What is the risk involved in plucking a scorer from just below you.

It is a concern that has complicated Christian Benteke’s move from Aston Villa to Liverpool, Chelsea’s search for an alternative to Diego Costa, Tottenham Hotspur’s requirement for a partner to Harry Kane, Arsenal’s long-term pursuit of an upgrade to the currently on-form Olivier Giroud and even Manchester United’s ongoing problems up front.

All will struggle to buy from their level, so all will likely have to look below.

It is also a question that has been offered a fairly strong case study in Manchester City’s own attempts to alter their attack. It was at this point last year that Etihad officials were finalising a deal with Swansea City for Wilfried Bony, as they sought to freshen up their attack, while also giving themselves a different option.

Much of it made perfect sense. Bony had scored a healthy 34 goals in 70 games for Swansea and, at 26 and coming into his prime, seemed prepared for the step-up. The chances City created would surely improve that already respectable goalscoring ratio, while Bony himself would offer the side a different type of threat. A different vibe to an attack that was going slightly stale beyond the brilliant Sergio Aguero.

It isn’t unfair to say it hasn’t quite worked out so far, and one set of figures sums that up. Bony had a conversion rate of 14.4% at Swansea. At City, it is just 9.4%. Those numbers are narrow, but potentially have widescale meaning, and not just for Bony.

On one side, you could say it is natural, given that City create many more chances and then give him more opportunities to miss. Those misses don’t matter as much, because there’s always another coming. The flipside of that is that it shows how much more efficient he was at Swansea, but that just throws up something of a contradiction about all of this.

It stands to reason that, in a team creating more chances, Bony should score more - but the reality is that there are more complications. Cliched as it has become, it’s difficult not to bring some of this down to the psychological aspect involved in playing for such clubs.

A striker might have more chances, but every miss actually takes on a cumulative importance. It doesn’t lessen. It also means more to be keeping the pressure up in a title race, than in a mid-table Europa League chase - especially when there’s already the difficulty of having to stand in for someone as stunning as Aguero.

Bony hasn’t so far managed this as well as the archetype stand-in striker, Edin Dzeko 2013/14, but that in itself throws up other issues.

There are of course other contexts here, not least the higher standard of the play and the need to get yourself up to that technical level, as well as the fact that any stand-in will simply be afforded less minutes. That will affect anyone’s rhythm - unless they’re someone like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - and that has been repeatedly seen with Bony.

There have been glimpses of better things with more football, not least in the brilliant 3-1 win away to Sevilla that went a long way to clinching top spot in the Champions League group. That was a truly exacting level, where Bony was back to his efficient best, if with a side built more to his strengths.

It just remains open to question whether he can do that when suddenly called in in the way Dzeko used to be, whether he can really be that crucial stand-in scorer. This is not to say City should discard Bony. He remains a hugely useful - and potentially valuable - attacking alternative, as the Sevilla game showed.

He just needs to show greater efficiency, if they are not to look for another striker. That, however, could just throw up the same issue if they must also look to clubs below them in the table.

Would Bony be capable of firing City to the title should Aguero get injured? Let us know in the comments below