Mesut Ozil shines after City’s other targets disappoint

As ever, the World Cup offers an opportunity to cast an eye over players we’d like to see playing for City. This time we have the added fun of knowing the club are looking at several individuals.

Thus far we’ve had five of our alleged transfer targets on show and it’s easy to see which one has got us drooling.

Mesut Ozil

The young German playmaker certainly helped us get over the disappointment of not seeing Jerome Boateng. He played like we want Stevie Ireland to play.

Sharp, penetrative passing coupled with a desire to burst forward and score himself. There was more consistency to Ozil’s passing and he showed a nice burst of speed to get beyond defenders. Despite a lack of physical presence, the quick one and two touch passing should help him survive in the Premier League.

Ozil’s been linked with City over recent months though recently talk of David Silva have been stronger. The Spaniard has greater experience, but a move for him appears difficult due to Valencia’s financial demands and the player’s desire to remain in Spain.

Tor-Kristian Karlsen:

“credit to #mcfc scouting team who’ve been tracking mesut özil for months. deal might still be struck with werder bremen this summer”

It’s not a good transfer strategy to sign a player after one good game, but if it was, let’s go for Ozil and leave Silva to his other suitors.

Angel di Maria

The highly valued di Maria struggled to get into the game against Nigeria. He did little wrong, but failed to shine. Talk of 30 million euros seemed excessive.

Maradona’s team was a little chaotic with more talent than discipline, but it didn’t stop Messi from looking good. Tevez also offered more than the young winger. There should still be time for di Maria to shine in the coming games.

Aleksandar Kolarov

Our links with the Serbian left-back are a little more tenuous and like di Maria, he looks likely to end up at Real Madrid. On this showing against Ghana, they’re welcome to him.

Kolarov is keen to get forward, but didn’t look great defensively – all a bit to similar to Wayne Bridge. In fairness his long range passing and shooting looked of a higher standard.

A new left-back is top of many City fans wish list, yet no clear transfer target has emerged.

Yoann Gourcuff

Another playmaker we’ve been linked with, but let’s hope it goes no further on this display. Like many in the French team, Gourcuff struggled to impress against Uruguay with one shot going out for a throw-in.

He’s surely a better player than we saw here, but there was a clear lack of pace which can’t be blamed on Domenech.

James Milner

We already know about Milner and it’s just as well given his nightmare against the USA. Offering nothing in attack and struggling to keep up with a pacy American full-back, the Villa player was hauled off after half an hour. Ironically his replacement was Shaun Wright-Phillips who fared better despite playing on his wrong side.

Players we’ve been linked with in the upcoming games include: Leonardo Bonucci (Italy), Giorgio Chielini (Italy), Mark Hamsik (Slovakia), Simon Kjaer (Denmark), Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast), Dani Alves (Brazil), Maicon (Brazil) and Gregory van der Wiel (Holland).

• Who do you think City should sign from those on show at the World Cup?