Pep Guardiola set to make a transfer and tactical decision following Man City’s long-awaited signing
In May, Manchester City completed the purchase of Erling Haaland, a player with whom they had been associated since 2020.
The 21-year-old is one of Europe’s most prolific attackers, with 86 goals and 23 assists in 89 games for Borussia Dortmund (2020-2022), but Gabriel Agbonlahor believes Pep Guardiola will make a huge transfer and tactical move to get the most out of him.
He believes Man City will acquire Brighton & Hove Albion defender Marc Cucurella – a man Pep Guardiola has been linked with as a replacement for Benjamin Mendy – and that City would revert to getting their fullbacks to the byline and whipping in crosses for the attackers.
Left-back possibilities include Joao Cancelo and Oleksandr Zinchenko, but Guardiola prefers Cucurella, who has made 115 crosses and created 42 opportunities this season.
“It’s okay having Cancelo playing there and Zinchenko, but they need to fill that role. That will be one of the areas they look at, a top left-back who can put in crosses.
“As much as Pep loves the way they play when he first came in it was the full-backs getting to the byline and whipping early crosses in. That might be the tactic that Pep wants to use with Haaland.
“Haaland will want a lot of crosses coming into the box so he’ll want a left-back who can use his pace and get early crosses in.” Haaland is more a physical striker who flourishes with distribution out wide, rather than being someone who drops deep to play a major role in the build-up.
It will be interesting to see if Guardiola alters the way City attacks next season.
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Pep Guardiola set to make a transfer and tactical decision following Man City’s long-awaited signing
