Elliot Anderson goes back to the City Ground this evening as Manchester City’s £116m No.6, so here is our scouting report on what he gives Enzo Maresca, where opponents are already finding a way round him, and how good he can become.
He turned 24 on Friday and has played 14 games for City. In that time he has gone from Nottingham Forest’s best player in a relegation fight to the man trusted to sit in front of City’s centre-backs, a job that once belonged to Rodri.
The short answer to whether he has lived up to the fee: mostly yes. His numbers are among the best in the league for a midfielder, but there is one habit in his game that Sunderland, Paris St-Germain and Brighton have all used against City, and it is the thing Maresca most needs to fix.
Who is Elliot Anderson?
Anderson is an English central midfielder, born on 6 November 2002 in Whitley Bay. He stands 1.79m and was the first signing of the Maresca era at the Etihad this summer, joining from Nottingham Forest for £116m after Manchester United and Arsenal had also tracked him.
He is a full England international and helped Thomas Tuchel’s side finish third at the World Cup this summer. City spent £320m on three midfielders in the window, with Ayyoub Bouaddi and Enzo Fernandez arriving alongside him.
Elliot Anderson youth career and background
Anderson started at Wallsend Boys Club and joined Newcastle United’s academy at the age of eight. He signed his first professional contract there in November 2019 and spent part of 2022 on loan at Bristol Rovers before Forest signed him in 2024.
He represented Scotland at youth level, up to the Under-21s, before switching to England. He won the European Under-21 Championship with England in 2025 and broke into the senior side the same year.
His two seasons at Forest made his name. Last season they had four different managers and finished only five points above the relegation zone, yet he topped the league’s rankings for touches, winning possession, contesting duels and drawing fouls.
Elliot Anderson style of play
At Forest he was a box-to-box runner. Under Maresca he is the holding midfielder, closer to the centre-backs, and he has admitted that took some learning. After the 4-1 win over Crystal Palace in August he said: “I’m loving [my role but] it’s a bit different to what I’ve been used to. I’ve got to be a bit more structured, that’s what I’m learning, to stay in my position. At Forest I was doing a little bit more.”
Maresca explained the thinking on Friday: “The idea was to have Elliot close to the central defender for different reasons: for the transition, for the build-up.” He added that “Elliot in this moment is playing more as the holding midfielder, but in future he can also play a little bit more up front.”
Strengths
Physicality, intensity and reading of the game. Anderson is a front-footed midfielder who can press high or wide, win the ball and start the attack himself. When City’s man-to-man press has been played through, he has often stopped the counter on his own, as he did with a recovery against Brighton.
He is also more than a destroyer. His drive and cross for Erling Haaland’s winner in the 3-2 win at RB Leipzig on Wednesday showed what he can do higher up, and Haaland said afterwards: “He has been amazing. He has had an amazing start to his City career and that is what you expect.”
Then there is his attitude. Maresca said: “Knowing him now, he’s a guy who wants to learn every day. We sat with him with a video. He wants to understand things, he wants to learn and improve and for a manager it’s a dream.”
Weaknesses
The same instinct that makes him so good at winning the ball can pull him out of position. Anderson tends to react to players rather than hold his zone, because he usually wins those duels. Clever opponents have started to use that.
Sunderland’s Enzo Le Fee kept making runs around and beyond him in September. Anderson followed, almost every time, and that left space in front of City’s defence for a pass into Brian Brobbey. Paris St-Germain and Brighton used the same kind of decoy runs to drag him away and open up the middle.
It is not a lack of effort, it is too much of it. For a No.6 in a Maresca side, staying put is often the harder and more valuable job. His eagerness to engage also cost him at Villa Park, where a Premier League panel has since ruled he should have given away a penalty.
Elliot Anderson stats this season
He has not quite matched last season’s outright league-leading numbers, but his Premier League figures are still elite for a holding midfielder (as of 6 November 2026):
| Stat | Total | League rank |
|---|---|---|
| Fouls drawn | 28 | 1st |
| Duels won | 66 | 2nd |
| Successful passes | 610 | 3rd |
| Touches | 851 | 3rd |
Only Tottenham’s Jan Paul van Hecke and Arsenal’s Declan Rice have made more successful passes in the opposition half and more line-breaking passes, and Anderson has played at least 66 minutes fewer than both. In all competitions he has one goal and two assists in 14 games, which is about what you would expect from a deep-lying No.6.
Elliot Anderson potential and fit at Man City
Maresca has been clear about how highly he rates him. Guillem Balague said on Match of the Day that he asked the City boss in the summer whether he wanted Bournemouth’s Alex Scott or Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, and the answer was “no”, with Maresca adding: “Anderson is going to become the key player for England, not just City.”
For now Bouaddi is the main rival for the No.6 role, and when it is a straight choice Anderson gets it. Bouaddi has also been tried next to him, which gives City a second body in the middle when Anderson jumps out to press, as he did against PSG. Maresca called it “a matter of balance”, naming Anderson, Bouaddi, Fernandez, Rayan Cherki, Phil Foden and Mateo Kovacic as options game by game.
In our view that double pivot is a stopgap, not the long-term answer. The real fit comes when Anderson learns to stay in the hole. Pep Guardiola said of Rodri’s first season in 2021: “Last season he moved too much. The holding midfielder has to be there, don’t move, be there.” Rodri won the Ballon d’Or in 2024. Anderson’s start at City is already better than Rodri’s was in 2020.
Verdict: the best No.6 City could have bought, with one lesson left
We would not swap him for anyone in his position in the league. He wins the ball, keeps it, moves it forward and draws fouls like no one else, and he is still only 24. The decoy-run problem is a coaching job, not a ceiling, and Maresca clearly enjoys the work.
The City Ground, where Maresca hopes he gets a warm welcome, is a fitting place to watch for it. Forest know him better than anyone, and if Oliver Glasner’s side try to pull him out of the middle this evening, how often he resists will tell us a lot about how far he has come since the summer. Our expectation is that he holds his ground.
