Man City's 2023/24 season with Declan Rice and Mateo Kovacic simulated with incredible results

After completing their historic Treble, Manchester City look set to make some changes to their squad ahead of the upcoming season.

With Ilkay Gundogan's move away from City confirmed and the future of Bernardo Silva uncertain, some new additions will be needed in the City midfield next season. City and Chelsea have agreed on an initial £25million fee for midfielder Mateo Kovacic, with the Croatian having undergone a medical.

Kovacic isn't seen as a replacement for Gundogan though, with Declan Rice now subject of City interest this summer after two failed bids for the Englishman from Arsenal. Pep Guardiola's side are interested in the midfielder, and City have had a £90m package for Rice rejected but he still looks set to depart West Ham this summer.

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So, how could City perform in the 2023/24 Premier League campaign with Rice and Kovacic in their ranks? Let's take a look.

To set up this simulation, we used the Football Manager 2023 editor to move both Rice and Kovacic to City, using FM23 to run the simulation. We then simulated the entire 2023/24 season to see how the duo got on.

Both midfielders were used regularly in the simulation, with Rice playing more than Kovacic as the Englishman made 54 appearances compared to the Croatian's 50. 49 of Rice's appearances were starts whilst Kovacic started just 16 times, with the latter mostly used off the bench by Guardiola.

Rice averaged the second-best rating per game out of the City midfielders, with his rating of 7.22 per game only beaten by Kevin De Bruyne (7.38). Interestingly, Kovacic's rating was the lowest of the midfielders, averaging just a 6.88 rating per game. De Bruyne scored nine and assisted 10 in all