Sergio Gomez is Man City's answer to Alphonso Davies
Neel Shelat
- 17 Aug 2022 13:45 BST
- 5 min read
Manchester City have completed the signing of Sergio Gomez from Anderlecht for €13m - and they may just have scored themselves the next Alphonso Davies.
The 21-year-old Spaniard joins a long list of left-backs that Pep Guardiola has brought to the Etihad Stadium, but not a single one of them has been able to establish themself as a regular starter. Gomez will obviously want to break that trend, but there is next to no chance of him displacing Joao Cancelo in the immediate future at least.
The real discussion is whether he will even be around the first team this season. There were suggestions that he might be loaned out to Girona, but given Manchester City’s lack of depth in the full-back department, Gomez should be expected to stay unless subsequent signings are made.
That is not to say, though, that the Spanish U21 international is not an immensely talented player. In fact, he won the Silver Ball at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2017, where he was named the second-best player at the tournament behind new club-mate Phil Foden.
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Alphonso Davies likeness
Much like Alphonso Davies, who starred as a right winger for the Vancouver Whitecaps, Gomez played on the wings in his youth career at Barcelona’s famous La Masia academy and after his move to Dortmund. To this day, he is deployed on the right of attack by the Spaun U21 head coach Luis de la Fuente.
Davies’ conversion to full-back began after he moved to Bayern Munich, but Gomez can already be considered a left-back. The Spaniard’s shift began during his time at Huesca on loan from Dortmund, when he was used in a multitude of positions ranging from winger to attacking midfielder to full-back on both sides.
While this constant change in positions might have slowed down Gomez’s development, it certainly made the Spaniard a much more versatile player. Like Davies, Gomez can now claim to be at his flashiest when used as an overlapping full-back, but his work in midfield means he can also do a very good job in a more conservative role that demands ball progression, even from inverted positions in the half-space.
After the end of his two-season long loan in Spain, Gomez caught the eye of Anderlecht, then managed by ex-Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany. The Belgians paid Dortmund just €1.5m for him.
Kompany saw the Spaniard as a full-time left-back, and it was at Anderlecht his development accelerated.
2021/22 season at Anderlecht
Gomez took the Belgian Pro League by storm. He ended the season with 11 assists (a tally greater than any of his team-mates) and six goals. His 17 goal involvements were only bettered by striker Joshua Zirkzee, a loanee from Bayern Munich.
His underlying attacking numbers were outstanding, as his pizza chart depicts.
This says everything about the sort of role Gomez played – that of a very attacking overlapping full-back.
It should be said, though, that he was not a typical overlapping full-back who stayed very close to the touchline because he also got involved in the half-spaces throughout the length of the pitch. This becomes clear when looking at his heatmap from his last few matches.
Of course, the standout aspect of Gomez’s game was his chance creation.
Thanks to his speed, he would often be able to make runs in behind opposition full-backs …
… before delivering low, driven balls across the face of the goal or to a free player at the edge of the box.
Generally, the Spanish youth international tended to keep his crosses grounded while delivering them from beyond the 18-yard line. As his stats indicate, though, he was a high-volume crosser, and that is because he loved to deliver early crosses.
He did so both to the far post area …
… and to the near post region …
… with his out-swinging deliveries always causing problems for opposing defences and goalkeepers.
Another pattern in his chance creation was chipped balls in behind the opposition back line from deep regions, once again with a good deal of swing involved.
In this way, Gomez showed a lot of variation as he established himself as one of the leading chance creators not just at Anderlecht, but also in the Belgian Pro League last season.
Going back to that pizza chart, it is clear to see that his main weakness was defending. His numbers look worryingly low, but that is also partly down to Anderlecht being a possession-dominant side. Nonetheless, the statistics make it quite clear that his conversion to a full-back still needs work, and this is what he should look to improve on in England.
Joao Cancelo is not under threat yet, then, but Gomez has been signed with one eye on the future, but also to provide a different type of full-back option for Man City.
