Riyad Mahrez still intends to be Manchester City’s first-choice penalty taker despite the arrival of new signing Erling Haaland.
Riyad Mahrez said: “I’ve scored 11 penalties before that, so I wasn’t thinking too much about West Ham, I was just thinking, f—— hell, what are we doing here, we’re playing at home and we’re losing 2-0 against Villa. Sometimes you don’t feel good in a game, I didn’t that day, and some other people came in and helped us to win – that’s what our team is about. We have top players in every position. Normally, in some teams, there are like 12, 13 players, but especially last year, the level was incredible here.”
With no confidence lost after that penalty miss at the London Stadium, Mahrez said he expects to be City’s taker next season – but is open to sharing the responsibility sometimes with Haaland.
Riyad Mahrez said: “We will see, I think I’m staying on penalties, but I’m open. I’m not really selfish. We will see. I met him on holiday and we spent an afternoon together, but otherwise no, I didn’t know him. I didn’t try [to convince him], he wanted to come already from last year, I think. He asked me about City, I said, it’s very good, you should come. My role will be a bit different, if you have Haaland or if you have… last season, for example, we played a lot with Phil [Foden], who was coming deep, so it’s different. But in my career I’ve always played with different strikers: big strikers, fast strikers. It doesn’t change too much. [But] if I was playing with Jamie Vardy, I wasn’t going to play with Vardy the same way I was playing with Phil. You have to adapt.”
On the subject of Vardy, Mahrez also agreed with teammate Jack Grealish, who compared new City forward Julian Alvarez with the Leicester striker.
Riyad Mahrez said: “He does, he does. The same movement, yeah, a very good player, very impressed. He plays for the team, he’s not really selfish. I like this type of player.”
