I knew this player. Not him. The type. I had spent a season turning JJ, who was let go by City to carry Moss Side Athletic, and the trick was never to fix the flaw.
You do not sand down a Ziyech. You build the team so the flaw costs you nothing and the gift costs them everything. Give him a runner outside him, so his drifting opens a door instead of leaving a hole.
Make every set piece his, so the part of him that needs to be the most important man on the pitch gets fed without him wandering off to find it.
And find the one man in that group he respects, and make him the one who tells Ziyech to track back. Because it will never come from me. The new Englishman does not get to give that order. It has to come from inside the room.
Three names circled by midnight. Hakimi, to unleash. Boussoufa, to slow it down. Ziyech, to build around.
