Where will Ilkay Gundogan fit in at Manchester City? The answer is simple: at the very heart of the team.
Gundogan
is Pep Guardiola’s first City signing for a reason. And there is a
reason the club pushed through a deal early, even though he is
recovering from a dislocated knee cap.
Guardiola has decided to
overhaul the squad he will inherit from Manuel Pellegrini, and what
better way to start than by signing somebody capable of dictating the
pace and rhythm of matches? All that before the new coach even takes up
office.
Alongside Julian Weigl, the prodigiously talented
20-year-old who has also caught Guardiola’s eye, Gundogan sits at the
back of the Borussia Dortmund midfield and controls their high-energy
game.
Only Bayern played more passes in last season’s Bundesliga
than Dortmund, and only Mats Hummels and Julian Weigl made more passes
for Dortmund than Gundogan – and both men played more minutes (501 and
254, respectively).
Gundogan
was the Bundesliga’s seventh most prolific passer. When his agent was
snapped meeting Txiki Begiristain, the City sporting director, at the
start of March, he ranked top of the pile, but missed seven of the final
10 league games through injury, and therefore slipped down the list.
That
fact may raise a few eyebrows. There are concerns among some City fans
that Gundogan may be injury prone, but that does not appear to be the
case. Whereas Blues stalwarts Vincent Kompany and David Silva, for
example, have repeatedly struggled with the same injuries this season,
Gundogan’s woes have not been obviously linked.
Having recovered
from the back injury which kept him out of the 2013-14 season and the
start of the following campaign, the only thing that sidelined him in
recent weeks was a bruised foot and, currently, that dislocated knee
cap. The latter injury is unlucky, certainly, but should not cause too
much concern once he has recovered.
Indeed, City are not too
worried. In an ideal world, Gundogan would have been on the training
pitch this summer, teaching the current City players, their youngsters
and any other new signings how to play the Pep way.
During
Guardiola’s time at Barcelona, new arrivals Javier Mascherano and David
Villa closely studied Sergio Busquets and Pedro. Despite being several
years their junior, it was not age that was important, it was the way
the two La Masia graduates played the game. Likewise at Bayern Munich,
Thiago was brought to the club to show his new team-mates exactly what
was required of a Guardiola midfielder. Xabi Alonso followed a year
later and the Munich’s transformation into a passing team ramped up
another notch.
That is what City fans can expect from Gundogan and the rest of the players who will arrive this summer.
Guardiola
and Begiristain have been busy identifying and pursuing players that
will make the new coach’s summer as smooth as possible.
And while
Gundogan will not directly contribute to pre-season, City could not
really afford to look elsewhere. The club hope to make four or five
big-name signings this summer, but prising somebody of the Germany
international’s quality, for such a low price, would have been close to
impossible.
Source: Goal.com