MCFC 2023/24 Season Review Part 1 of 2: Player, Match and Goal of the Season

Dan Burke and friends look back at the best and worst bits 2023/24 campaign

Manchester City made history this season, becoming the first team in 135 years of English football to win the top-flight title four years in a row.

The UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup were also lifted, but City dealt with some disappointment in the other competitions, finishing the season with a frustrating defeat to United in the FA Cup final.

Before signing off for the summer, I have enlisted the help of some solid Blues to review the trials and tribulations of the 2023/24 campaign.

We’ll be releasing the season review in two parts, and in part one we’re starting with our…

Player of the Season

Richard Burns

You flip a coin and land on Foden or Rodri and either is the right result. Foden has taken games by the scruff of the neck and dragged us through some enormous games. He is realising his extraordinary talent. But then Rodri is the foundation on which everything else is built. We saw after his stupid red card against Forest that we struggle to win without him; He is an incredibly imposing presence and must be awful to play against. 

I flipped my coin and it landed on tails. Then I realised I hadn't assigned a player to either side so it meant nothing. I flipped it again and it landed on its edge, which was really frustrating. So I flipped it AGAIN and midair, finally, it whispered to me 'Think about it. You've basically said Rodri got a stupid red card that cost City some games. If you look at that another way, you could say he blotted his copybook ever so slightly and that could nudge you towards Foden.' I agreed with the coin - I'm giving it to Foden. Props to Rodri though. Good player. 

David Mooney

This is the easiest it’s been for a while. I understand why people would say Rodri because of his importance to the team and how the three defeats during his suspension proved what City can’t do without him. However, despite all of that, Phil Foden has come into his own. In Kevin De Bruyne’s absence with injury, Foden provided the creative spark. Throw in several hat-tricks and game-changing performances and there were times I, genuinely, was more nervous when he was missing than when De Bruyne was. He’s the local boy made good.

Bob Toole

Phil Foden. This is the season where he has really elevated himself to elite levels. I was so excited to see what he could do at the beginning of the season and he more than delivered. He seems most effective in the middle of the attack but let’s face it he is class anywhere. He’s got a few hat-tricks along the way and a seems to have developed a trademark goal (the one from edge of the box into the top left corner). He has also become a scorer of important goals - United, Real Madrid, Brentford, West Ham to name but a few. And best of all he is a solid Blue. 

Alex Timperley

Straight in with an opportunity for people to out themselves as contrarians with this question by answering anything other than the obvious. The answer is, of course, Phil Foden. His best season so far and all the signs that he's ready to take over and lead the team, as is his birthright. 

Always knew he had the potential to be a proper goalsman, but he also showed so much more this season in all regards. He's a special talent and we've got another 15 years of him yet (maybe, probably).

Ciaran Murray

It’s Rodri for me. Foden was obviously exceptional and is getting scarily better year on year but I just think Rodri is just our heartbeat, lynchpin, pillar, anchor, backbone, foundation and any other sort of stable support type cliché you can think of. He’s so crucial to how we play and, as he proved when he stupidly got himself suspended a couple of times, he’s pretty irreplaceable. When he doesn’t play, it’s incredibly difficult for City to win - his record breaking 74 consecutive matches without defeat further testament to his importance. His goals and assists tally was hugely impressive again and, when he scores, his goals are either dead important, class to look at, or both. Great player. 

Dan Burke

The lads have pretty much covered all angles of the Foden vs Rodri debate so rather than raking over old graves, I’ll chuck a couple of other names out there who weren’t POTY but deserve their flowers.

Manuel Akanji was City’s best and most consistent defender throughout last season, with Joško Gvardiol really finding his feet towards the end of the season and looking like a much better buy than he perhaps did in the early months.

And though he only made 20 appearances amounting to 1,622 minutes, we wouldn’t have won the title without Stefan Ortega’s save to deny Son one-on-one in that horrible Spurs game, would we?

Match of the Season

David Mooney

Newcastle 2-3 City. This would turn out to be an important last-minute victory in the title picture. City were great, then they lost control of the game, then De Bruyne came on and showed what had been missing in his time injured. And just when it looked like I was going to be frustrated by more dropped points after a good overall display, Oscar Bobb pops up with the niftiest footwork I’ve seen in a long time to snatch it at the death. 

Bob Toole

Doesn’t feel like we’ve had many classics this season but the 3-3 at Madrid was pretty good. It was frustrating as they got two jammy goals but we scored some beauties and it was a good old fashioned ding dong. It was annoying not to win it but if you can’t enjoy the spectacle then what’s the point?

Richard Burns

Chelsea 4-4 City. Incredible game of football. Enjoyed it, even if I didn't enjoy the outcome. Real Madrid 3-3 City is close because of the quality of both teams going at it and the way the game ebbed and flowed. But the Chelsea game had more goals and more last minute drama, even if that went against City, sometimes you just have to accept that if you can't win, you can be entertained and that game delivered big time. Also Haaland scored with his perineum and that's class. 

Alex Timperley

Probably the final day of the season for me. It was a truly lovely day and it all felt fantastic. It's nice to just win one rather than be sat there on 70 minutes (or 90 minutes...) wondering where it all went wrong, hoping for a reprieve and elation. 

In contrast the final day this year was a good vibe throughout. Even through the shaky moments it felt like the lads on the pitch had it under control and I was largely relaxed throughout. A great end to another quite stressful and punishing season. 

Ciaran Murray

I don’t want to say Chelsea 4-4 because we didn’t win and both Sterling and Palmer scoring sickened my happiness. It was very entertaining though to be fair.

I’m going to go for the 3-2 against Newcastle in January. All three of City’s goals were superb: that flick from Bernardo; a long-ranged bottom corner dart from the returning De Bruyne and a last minute display of skill close range from Oscar Bobb. Newcastle’s goals were great too, to their credit. The game was just thrilling - going ahead on 26 minutes then conceding two in quick succession, going in behind at half-time to then win late on. Plenty of that delicious jeopardy everyone craves so badly these days. Coming from behind to win away from home was a bit of a theme of those winter months and this was the pinnacle of it. 

Dan Burke

It certainly wasn’t the most entertaining spectacle (in fact it was horrible to watch) but I’ve always been a believer that if you want entertainment you should go to a circus, and our 2-0 win away at Spurs in the final week was City’s season-defining game, for me.

We had to win on a ground where we’d never before scored a Premier League goal, and we had to do it amid all the weird noise a surrounding the game, Arsenal fans cheering Spurs on etc.

It wasn’t a great performance on the night but City survived a major scare, got the job done, and we gripped the title firmly with one hand.

Goal of the Season

Bob Toole

Oscar Bobb versus Newcastle. This felt like a big moment in the season. Snatching three points at the death of any game is great, but the quality of this goal only added to the moment. Kev’s pass was sublime but the footwork from Bobb to jink it around the keeper and slot into the empty net was incredible. To be so calm and composed in a high pressure situation takes some talent. If I was in that situation I probably would have shot straight away. I guess my only similarity to him is my name and not my footballing ability.

David Mooney

This is the toughest pick for me. I’ve finally settled on Foden’s equaliser against United, but he’s scored a few of those thwacks and I could have picked any of them. Shoutout also to Joško Gvardiol at Real Madrid. Or Fulham.

Richard Burns

Foden's first v West Ham. He's scored that goal a lot of times but the magnitude of the final-day goal to set City on their way to the title wins it for me. I'm probably forgetting loads of goals though. 

Alex Timperley

Rico Lewis vs Palace. Wasn't the greatest goal but everything combined brought back the strongest emotional reaction when I was thinking about this, which makes it my goal of the season. Emotional reactions to goals are what it's all about and that one stands out for me.

Ciaran Murray

There have been some screamers this season and I’m very much thinking of Phil Foden’s now trademark top corner finishes. However, quite bizarrely, my goal of the season is a header. Kevin De Bruyne’s first ever Premier League headed goal, to be exact. I’d been really worried about that Brighton game in the run-in but De Bruyne’s diving header 17 minutes in helped ease any nerves and you just felt we’d be okay after a goal of such beauty. 

Walker’s cross was decent but De Bruyne still had to improvise to get beneath it. Flying at it, coming from below but still generating all that power to beat the keeper from that distance and the accuracy to have it sail just beneath the crossbar. There’s a lovely slow motion clip of his luscious locks flying with it too. I think that’s why he went with his head - easier to show off his new 23/24 hairstyle. People compared it to Van Persie’s header against Spain in the 2014 World Cup. But it was far better than that. 

Dan Burke

For me it’s Kevin De Bruyne’s goal away at Newcastle. We really missed him in the first half of the season and seeing him come off the bench and play such an influential role when we needed him in a game we were losing made me so happy. His goal was a classic De Bruyne hockey stick sweep into the corner, and his assist for Bobb’s late winner wasn’t bad either.

We should savour these magic De Bruyne moments while we still can.

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Coming up in part two later today, we’ll be picking our alternative moments and biggest disappointments of the season, before summing up the season in a song.