admin Manchester City have the unenviable task of replacing Ilkay Gundogan but have made some early inroads.
Ilkay Gundogan is Manchester City’s latest ‘irreplaceable’ who needs to find a way to replace him. In seven successful years at Etihad, the German not only showed his talent for combining defense and attack in his own way, but also captained the team’s treble winners last year.
Losing him on a free transfer to Barcelona wasn’t what Pep Guardiola had wanted, but rather the result of the fact that the club had only then made him such a good offer as he could have gotten elsewhere than it was was late.
It will take some getting used to the fact that Gündogan does not feature prominently in City’s squad and his absence may only become apparent in the big games towards the end of the season.
He was an unstoppable winner last season against Leeds, Everton and United. However, the church has no choice and has certainly taken steps to replace them.
Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes arrived for around £80m, Phil Foden plays more central and the benefit of the summer window was that Bernardo Silva agreed to stay and sign a new contract.
There is also initial progress towards the goal. Kovacic is trying to move freely between positions 6 and 8 and has started playing crucial balls in the centre
There was a situation at Burnley where Foden almost converted into a spectacular goal and then Erling Haaland’s pass to the opener against Fulham was simple but perfect, just the way it needed to be. Haaland’s center forward became Julian Alvarez, who played more or less successfully in midfield behind striker no. 1 of the ranking.9.
One of the things the Argentinean does best by far is finding spaces in the box and he found himself in a position for Gundogan to make a substitution. Off the field, Kyle Walker has become team leader in anticipation of being named team captain this season.
With Kevin De Bruyne injured, Ruben Dias would probably have been an obvious accolade early in the summer, but Walker was presented with the armband on the pre-season tour and used his initiative to make his voice heard.
The England defender has gone about it in his way based on the experiences he has had for clubs and country. He admitted to reporters he was probably not as ‘straight down the line’ as Vincent Kompany and his bullish challenge to the group to blow their Premier League competition away early this season is probably not something Gundogan would have said, but it has helped them to four victories at a time when they have had to do without one of their best players in De Bruyne and their manager on the touchline.
Gundogan achieved too much at City to be forgotten, and it will still take a big effort to replace him. At the very least, the Blues have started.
