Benjamin Mendy is back, and he’s making sure everyone knows about it on the pitch, picking up five assists in six Premier League appearances, including one against Burnley at the weekend.
Sitting down with RMC Sport in France ahead of Manchester City’s Champions League fixture against Shakhtar Donetsk, the left-back discussed various topics, including his ability to cross the ball, which has won him a lot of praise recently.
Explaining it all started with luck, in that he’s fortunate to have ‘a really good left foot’, the 25-year-old also revealed where the motivation to improve that particular aspect of the game came from.
He said: “The first year, when I arrived at Marseille, it’s hard in the Vélodrome. You put in a cross at the back post or even further, it happened a lot, often even, and they were saying ‘he doesn’t know how to cross’. That’s what pushed me to think ‘Oi, wake up!’, and that I had to train to show my true ability.”
Mendy also revealed that the one thing about his role he learned from Pep Guardiola is an ability to play in different positions around the pitch, as the defender has been often spotted popping up in the middle of the field as Manchester City try and destabilise the opposition’s defence.
As for what the secret of a good cross is: “When the ball finds the back of the net afterwards (chuckles).”
