Malaga starlet Isco confirmed today to Spanish newspaper AS that he has had offers from both Real Madrid and, unsurprisingly, Manchester City about a summer move. Should the latter win the race to sign him, what could he bring to the table for the former EPL champions?
Manchester City’s biggest problem last season was the lack of depth in their squad as former manager Mancini failed to utilise the summer transfer window efficiently enough. The likes of Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell came in, while Manchester United signed powerful performers, Robin Van Persie and Shinji Kagawa.
Another issue was the drop in form of the playmakers, David Silva and Samir Nasri. With Nasri’s form being inconsistent since he joined the Citizens, Silva was a pivotal part of the Premier League winning team and the fact that he couldn’t match the high performance was noticeable.
Whilst the Spaniard created the second most chances in the Premier League this season behind Leighton Baines, and the same amount as the year before, he only got 8 assists compared to the 15 the year before.
Silva also contributed fewer goals to the side, only scoring 4 compared to 6, and attempted a shot every 70 minutes on average compared to 51 the year before.
The stats show that his performances were slightly down, however this can be put down to the change in formation that Manchester City used, which meant Silva had less space to take advantage of, and the inconsistencies of other players around him.
Isco, who will choose which club to move to after the end of the Euro Under-21’s, has shown his quality during the tournament, especially with a technically impressive goal against Holland.
The Malaga player scored 9 goals in La Liga this season, topping the club’s goal scoring chart, but only achieved 1 assist all season in the league – with his 46 chances created considerably smaller than Silva’s 104 and slightly smaller than Nasri’s 53. His biggest performances came in the Champions League though as he helped Malaga within a minute of the semi-finals in their debut year with 3 goals and 3 assists.
An area that City have struggled in is the accuracy of their crosses, with Nasri and Silva preferring to come inside which makes the side sometimes too narrow. The crossing accuracy for Nasri and Silva is 35% and 28% respectively, while Isco’s isn’t too impressive it is still an improvement at 40%.
With the narrow attacking play that plagued Mancini’s time at Manchester City, passing in the attacking third was essential for breaking through defences. This can be seen in the passing stats, with Samir Nasri completing 91% of his passes and Silva completing 85% of his, while making 42.4 and 57 passes on average per game.
Despite playing for Malaga, who dominated the possession less than City, Isco managed to make an average of 47.6 passes a game with a passing accuracy of 84.7%. Being at the age of 21 he can only improve his game, yet his quality on the ball and laying it off to others is already evident and will be a welcome addition in the short and long term to, not only Manchester City, but also the Premier League.
With the appointment of Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City will be favourites to sign the Spanish youngster, continuing their impressive start to this summer’s transfer window.
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