Bouaddi benched at Manchester City: Maresca’s shaky explanation fails to convince

Nineteen-year-old Moroccan midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi remained on the bench against Aston Villa, with Enzo Maresca saying Manchester City needed more technical midfielders and therefore selected Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden. The coach added that Bouaddi would help the team and would get playing time across the many matches ahead. Premier League statistics cited in the report partly challenge that explanation: Bouaddi has a 92.37% pass-completion rate, compared with 90.91% for Cherki and 88.5% for Foden, and completes more dribbles per 90 minutes than Foden.