Football

Premier League team introductions: Manchester City want a trophy as well as the title, reinforcements may help

Last year, England’s top competition offered a grand finale. And at the end of it, a great joy for Manchester City footballers and fans. This year’s ambitions are no less. After a series of transfers, the blue team enters with a clear objective. To defend the title and finally win the millionaire Champions League.

Published

2 years ago

1. 8. 2022

Petr Hais

The management team

The coaching team remains virtually unchanged. The 42-year-old Italian Enzo Maresca has joined the team from Parma and will act as assistant coach to Pep Guardiola. The other assistants are then Rodolfo Borrell and Carlos Vicens. Unlike Maresca, the last two mentioned are Spaniards.

Goalkeepers

The goalkeeper number one is also clear for the 2022/23 season, with Brazilian Ederson reigning supreme between the three sticks. However, he will be joined by a new substitute for the new season. Zack Steffen has been replaced by Stefan Ortega, who was one of the mainstays of German Bielefeld.

In 67 Bundesliga games, the German may have scored 105 goals, but one has to take into account his team’s regular woes. Ortega has thus often recorded a high number of saves. The Citizens’ number three goalkeeper is Scott Carson.

Defenders

Apart from the departure of Oleksandr Zinchenko, the defensive ranks remain virtually unchanged. Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte will be the main pillars at the stopper position. John Stones and Nathan Aké are also ready for the central defender position. All is smooth sailing in this part of the field for Manchester City.

It is worse at the position of the extreme defenders. Pep Guardiola was counting on the arrival of Marco Cucurella on the left edge of the defence, but thanks to Brighton’s unmet demands, suddenly Zinchenko was left with an empty spot. Joao Cancelo temporarily fills that void, but in the event of an injury, the Citizens have no replacement. And the same goes for Kyle Walker on the right.

So we can still expect activity in the transfer market. But the question remains who will be able to adequately replace the Ukrainian Zinchenko. There are not many options on the current transfer market.

Midfielders

For the defending champions, it’s hard to talk about the back line, whose players were regularly rotating on the wing last season. Foden, Silva, De Bruyne and others were regular victims of Pep Guardiola’s rotation. This year, however, things could calm down with the arrival of Erling Haaland.

The middle of the three-man line will almost certainly feature Rodri as a defensive member, who may be seconded by new signing Kalvin Phillips. The latter has come in as a replacement for Brazilian Fernandinho, who has gone back to his native country.

The other member of the midfield will undoubtedly be Kevin De Bruyne. On the other side, Phil Foden could start at the expense of Bernardo Silva. Portuguese Silva is linked with a move to Barcelona, moreover, he didn’t give his best performance in the Community Shield match. That’s also why the young Stockport native could start against West Ham.

A place in the line-up is being sought for the hero of the last league game, Ilkay Gündogan. However, even from the bench the German will be valid. The last player in the list is then young Cole Palmer, who is waiting for his bigger opportunity. But despite De Bruyne, it will be hard to get it at all.

Strikers

After a long time, a pure top striker returns to the Manchester blue team’s squad. Gabriel Jesus has played better as a winger in recent seasons and is now proving his qualities in Arsenal’s preparations. Now Norwegian sniper Erling Haaland will be creating wrinkles for the defence.

He will be expected to score a lot of goals, work in one-on-one duels and of course be a force in the fast running game. On the wings, Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahriz are expected to start the season, just as they did against Liverpool in the Community Shield.

On the wing, the Citizens could still look for replacements for Jesus and Raheem Sterling. The Englishman has signed for Chelsea and even that leaves a partially empty spot. Thus, complications could arise in case of an injury to one of the wingers.

These could be at least partially compensated by the other new striker in Pep Guardiola’s squad. Julián Álvarez from Argentina should be a permanent fixture in the team. He made his debut with a goal at the Community Shield as a substitute and gave a great performance.