Like so many, Riyad Mahrez clearly has huge talent – but is it enough for us?

There is a famous section in the book Fever Pitch in which Nick Hornby considers the curious case of Arsenal defender Gus Caesar.

In the late 1980s Caesar broke into the first team but struggled, becoming the target of fans' frustrations, and he was soon released by the Gunners, beginning a meandering career path that took him to Cambridge United, Bristol City, Airdrie, Colchester United and, finally, Hong Kong Rangers.

Hornby, though, is fascinated by the rise of Caesar. He imagines a young Gus as the best player in his school, his district, his Arsenal youth team. He is called up to the England Under-21 squad, "recognised as one of the best twenty or so players in the whole country".

And yet Caesar's Arsenal career ends in pathos rather than glory as Hornby concludes: "To get where he did, Gus Caesar clearly had more talent than nearly everyone of his generation ... and it still wasn't quite enough."

It's a lovely line, encapsulating the impossible demands we make of professional footballers. Every time they reach a certain level in their career there is another hurdle to clear, another critic to silence.

By any criteria, Cristiano Ronaldo has done pretty well in the game but there are still Messi fanboys on Twitter sneering that 'Penaldo' is useless because he's won only five Ballon d'Or awards to their hero's seven.

Manchester City's derby demolition of Manchester United on Sunday reminded me of the Gus Caesar chapter in Fever Pitch as it prompted the question: how good must you be to establish yourself even as one of the lesser lights in this City team?

While Kevin De Bruyne is regarded as one of City's modern greats, alongside Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and David Silva, there is a sense that players such as Riyad Mahrez and, at times, Raheem Sterling are taken for granted by fans and pundits.

Pep Guardiola spent four years as Barcelona coach and just three at Bayern Munich but he is closing in on the sixth anniversary of his appointment at City.

That longevity has allowed him to mould the Citizens into a remarkable footballing machine but the success of City as a unit can detract the individual brilliance of some of their players.

Mahrez is a particularly intriguing example. Unlike City teammates De Bruyne, Sterling or Phil Foden, he was not fast-tracked to stardom, spending three seasons with Le Havre in the French second division and signing for Leicester when they were still in the Championship.

His astonishing role in the Foxes' Premier League triumph of 2015-16 earned him the PFA Player of the Year award but his performance levels dropped off, along with those of his teammates, and for much of his Manchester City career he has been regarded as an expensive bit-part player.

By the time he made his debut for the Citizens in 2018, his former Leicester teammate N'Golo Kante had already won another Premier League title with new club Chelsea and lifted the World Cup with France.

Mahrez's career, in contrast, seemed to be in the doldrums, albeit in the footballing equivalent of a luxury super-yacht, and the most vivid memory of his first season at City was a spectacular penalty miss late in a goalless draw at Liverpool in October 2018.

In his last three Premier League campaigns with Leicester, Mahrez made 36, 33 and 34 starts. In his first three after joining City for a fee of £60m he started 14, 21 and 23 league games and this term ten of his 21 appearances have come as a substitute.

Despite not being the first name on Pep's teamsheet, his scoring record for City either side of the Africa Cup of Nations reads like the form figures of a Cheltenham Festival hotpot: 111121011012.

Those are the number of goals Mahrez scored in his 13 club appearances before Wednesday's Champions League clash with Sporting and one of the two duck eggs came in a 13-minute substitute appearance at Everton.

Of course, playing as an attacker for a dominant City side against low-grade opponents such as Wycombe, Club Brugge, Peterborough and Manchester United, he should be scoring goals.

As Shaun Wright-Phillips, speaking to Free Super Tips before last weekend's derby, said of Jack Grealish: "The way Manchester City play ... he will score more goals because all of those forwards score goals."

And a favourite pub or social-media debate is how many goals the average fan would score if they played up front for City in every minute of every game of the Premier League season.

Of course, playing every minute is not a luxury afforded to Mahrez, whose ten league goals have come from 11 starts, and for all the benefits he gains from his role at City, there is also huge pressure.

Steven Gerrard at Liverpool, Matt Le Tissier at Southampton or even De Bruyne at City wouldn't be dropped after a couple of quiet games but, at the age of 31, the Algerian has younger teammates queuing up to take his place in the front three.

His recent hot streak, including a superbly-taken brace against United, may have come too late for the PFA Player of the Year caucus and he is 100-1 with Hills to win the award again.

The white-hot competition for places in the City starting 11 (and the hearts of their supporters) is demonstrated by the fact that seven of his teammates are ahead of him in the Hills market with another two, Ilkay Gundogan and goalkeeper Ederson, also chalked up at 100-1.

The 1-6 favourite for the PFA award is Mohamed Salah, who is also the only Premier League player currently eclipsing Mahrez's record of being directly involved in a goal every 79.8 minutes this season.

Mind you, Salah has never won the Ballon d'Or so he can't be much good …

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