Guardiola's Haaland headache: Alvarez has proven he's better for Man City

Sam McGuire

• Updated: 8 Apr 2023 12:16 BST
• 5 min read

When Manchester City lineup on Saturday to face Leicester, it's very likely that they will drop the player who was arguably most integral to their 4-1 win over Liverpool last weekend.

It was a fine occasion for City, who played their best match of the season and had four or five players who staked a claim for the Man of the Match award.

Jack Grealish scored, assisted and completed 100% of his dribbles. Kevin De Bruyne scored, assisted and created five chances on the day. Riyad Mahrez registered an assist and created six chances. John Stones, playing in a double pivot with Rodri, put on a passing clinic and found a team-mate 96% of the time. Ilkay Gundogan did nothing wrong in midfield either, winning 75% of his duels, completing 88% of his attempted passes and scoring a goal.

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All of these players have been singled out for praise online but the real star of the show was Julian Alvarez. Heading into the game, all of the talk centred around whether or not Erling Haaland would be fit enough to play following a groin issue. He wasn’t and Pep Guardiola opted to have the Argentine forward lead the line.

A week on, Haaland is likely to be recalled to face Leicester, with Alvarez heading for the bench.

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Alvarez shines against Liverpool

At surface level, Alvarez’s game at the Etihad wasn’t anything special. Yes, he scored the equaliser but he wasn’t heavily involved. The 23-year-old attempted just 18 passes, had two shots and attempted a single dribble.

But a lot of the good he did on Saturday afternoon wasn’t quantifiable. For example, the pass in the build-up to the Kevin De Bruyne goal was registered as a single passing action when in reality it essentially created the opportunity.

Having had to check his run following an under-hit pass, Alvarez picks up possession on the half-turn and could easily look to slide a through ball into De Bruyne. However, if he’s a split-second late in releasing the ball, the Belgian playmaker is offside and the potential opportunity comes to nothing.

Alvarez shows great awareness to hold off on passing the ball before picking out Mahrez on the right. With Andrew Robertson trying to hold the line thinking the pass was being played to De Bruyne, he’s caught on his heels when the pass is eventually played to the former Leicester City man on the City right.

Mahrez is then able to just stroke the ball across the penalty area for the City No.17 to poke past Alisson. Alvarez creates this.

He also creates the opportunity for Gundogan.

During the initial build-up, he’s doubled up on Ibrahima Konate with the City skipper. He then makes a dart to the left of Fabinho, catching the Liverpool midfielder out cold, to receive a pass into feet.

The City No.19 carries the ball to the City right and this engages both Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, disrupting the away side’s shape.

Having dragged the Liverpool midfield to the right, Alvarez takes up a position in the penalty area to pick up a pass. He feints to shoot on his right side before moving it over to his left. This opens up the penalty area more and forces more Liverpool players to engage with him. Harvey Elliott, for example, has to shuffle over in an attempt to block the shot. This then leaves Gundogan and Grealish fairly free to the left of goal.

Trent Alexander-Arnold blocks the initial shot but the City skipper was in a prime position to poke the ball into the goal. This goal effectively killed off the tie.

So Alvarez scored the opener and then had a key role in the second and third goals.

Afterwards, Jamie Carragher jokingly said that Manchester City play better without Haaland in the XI but it does have to be said that the little Argentine does feel like more of a Guardiola attacker.

Alvarez wasn’t in the team to just score goals and because everything wasn’t geared towards one player, City ended up with multiple goal threats in their XI.

As previously mentioned, Alvarez attempted just 18 passes on the day and he finishes with a pass success rate of 83%. This might not seem that great but they are better than Haaland’s season averages. The City No.9 usually attempts 13 passes per 90 and finds a team-mate 75% of the time.

It has been discussed but ultimately few care about what he’s doing when he isn’t scoring goals. However, you can’t ignore the fact that City put in their best performance of the season against Liverpool without him in the team. They put in an utterly dominant display because it was Alvarez leading the line and not the former BVB man.