Alvarez steps out of Haaland's shadow to become Man City's surprise star
Sam McGuire
- Updated: 27 Sept 2023 13:53 BST
- 5 min read
For most teams, losing a player of Kevin De Bruyne’s quality would be enough to derail their season.
The 32-year-old chipped in with nine goals and 22 assists across the Premier League and Champions League last season as Manchester City won a historic treble. During the 2021/22 campaign, the Belgian midfielder scored a combined 17 goals and assisted on 11 occasions across the two competitions.
In any normal season, this would be a huge blow. But this wasn’t any normal season and came at the worst possible time for City. De Bruyne hobbled off just 20 minutes into the first game of the new season, away to Burnley, just days after the club had sold Riyad Mahrez to Al-Ahli. The champions also lost Ilkay Gundogan to Barcelona on a free transfer. In the blink of an eye, they found themselves without a lot of experience, creativity and goals.
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City did bring in Jeremy Doku and Matheus Nunes towards the end of the window but neither player replaces the former Wolfsburg maestro. On paper, Doku fills the void created by Mahrez’s departure while Nunes adds some depth to the middle third.
But, as ever, Pep Guardiola got a little creative with his tinkering and has discovered a way to deal with the loss of his No.17. Few would’ve envisioned it, but Julian Alvarez has stepped up.
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Alvarez an unsung hero
The 23-year-old had a deceptively strong debut campaign in England. However, he didn’t necessarily get the plaudits for his exploits, largely because his name wasn’t Erling Haaland and he wasn’t shattering Premier League records.
He finished the season with nine goals in the English top-flight having appeared in 1,454 minutes. Alvarez also scored three and chipped in with two assists in the Champions League as City finally conquered Europe to lift ol’ big ears.
Bayern Munich were rumoured to be interested in the versatile forward last summer as they looked to bolster their attacking options. City weren’t open to selling the Argentina international but, at the time, there was a lot of talk with regards to him wanting more game time on a regular basis.
There were also reports in Spain which claimed the former River Plate man was viewed as a Kylian Mbappe alternative by Real Madrid and that the LaLiga giants may make a move for him in the summer of 2024 if things at the Etihad didn’t improve.
His early season form makes a summer departure highly unlikely. He’s been one of the best players for the reigning champions, filling in as an attacking midfielder in City’s 4-2-3-1 system.
Alvarez has five goal involvements to his name, a figure that only Karou Mitoma, James Maddison, Mohamed Salah and Haaland can better. He also ranks favourably for chances created with 16 to his name already. Again, only an exclusive list of players made up of Kieran Trippier, James Maddison, Pedro Neto, Bruno Fernandes and Bukayo Saka can better that total.
He is pulling his weight as a creator and as a goal scorer, filling the dual-threat role occupied by De Bruyne under Guardiola for many years. He’s added two goals to his Premier League tally already this term, one of which was the match-winner against Newcastle United on matchday two.
The 2022 World Cup winner also assisted in the 3-0 win over Burnley before laying on two goals in the 3-1 win against West Ham United, a game in which City had to come from behind in to keep their 100% start to the season intact. Against the Hammers, Haaland left his shooting boots at home. The City No.9 had nine efforts but missed five big chances before finally finding the back of the net. The powerhouse Norwegian is as close to a guarantee as possible, but it was quite telling that when he was having something of an off day, it was Alvarez who elevated his game.
His first assist wasn’t that special with Doku doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but his scooped pass to Bernardo Silva for the second was brilliant and capped off a fine display from the City No.19.
Alvarez also scored twice in the comeback victory over FK Crvena Zvezda in the Champions League to add to his blistering start to the campaign. He’s making that position his own and proving himself to be a key player for the champions.
