What Abdukodir Khusanov did after debut errors shows he can be a success at Man City
Abdukodir Khusanov will have been dreaming of his Manchester City debut from the moment he first learned of their interest this month. It turned into a nightmare and he must now carry the weight of having one of the worst debuts in recent memory.
Five minutes in and Khusanov will have been questioning his entire move to City. First, the 20-year-old defender missed a header, then let it bounce, and then looked to nudge the ball back to Ederson - only for Chelsea to nip in and score the opener. Two minutes later, Khusanov passds straight to Cole Palmer and earned a booking for bringing him down.
The next time he had the ball - a simple pass back to the goalkeeper - he was cheered from the stands. It was an act of encouragement for a player whose confidence had completely evaporated in the space of 240 seconds. But it won't have done much to cheer him up as it shouldn't have been needed - cheering a ten yard pass under zero pressure.
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The support from the stands continued and slowly the youngster looked to claw back up from his position of rock-bottom confidence. When he stopped another attack with a good slide tackle, Guardiola made a point of applauding him - the first time he had acknowledged Khusanov since the opener. It felt like Guardiola was purposely withholding any public reaction to see what Khusanov was made of.
It wasn't his fault that City had no defenders and he had to play, nor that he hasn't had a training session with a full City squad this week. And he will only get better from here, with the fans on his side despite his early errors.
Guardiola highlighted a language barrier before this game and the defender looked like he is yet to bed into the group. Ederson offered a first word of support after his early mistake, telling him to just get rid of a ball like that, with Bernardo Silva and Josko Gvardiol also putting an arm of support on the Uzbek.
But despite the negative headlines that will come Khusanov's way - and it is hard to recall a more damning debut than his - there were signs of promise.
Those fast runs back to slide in and stop a counter were seen twice - once when Guardiola applauded, and again in the second half when he stood up Nicolas Jackson, waited, and shrugged the striker to the floor to dispossess him.
When he was replaced after just 50 minutes by John Stones the Etihad rose to show their support for the youngster. Khusanov looked devastated as he trudged off, taking a handshake and hug from his new manager before taking his seat on the bench.
He should not be defined by the first four minutes of his debut, and he will know that any outside noise will disappear as quickly as it appeared. It is up to City to rally around him to ensure this was just a case of opening night nerves. They will see, as the fans did, that there was as much positive as negative in Khusanov's eventful debut.
