Manchester City reportedly believe they have a ‘special’ player on their hands, who is a bit like John Stones.
It was a very good weekend for the club, who went top of the Premier League and stayed there.
City defeated Luton Town comfortably 5-1 at the Etihad Stadium, and then it was over to Liverpool and Arsenal. Remarkably, both of City’s title rivals lost their home games to Crystal Palace and Aston Villa respectively, and City are now fairly in the driving seat.
It was a thumping win over Luton, and there was another goal for Josko Gvardiol, who hit City’s fifth.
Just days earlier, he had scored a terrific goal against Real Madrid in the Champions League for his first for the club. Against Luton, he again scored brilliantly with his so-called weak foot. After the win over Luton, Pep hailed his weak foot ability.
It took a bit of time for Gvardiol to truly arrive for City, after signing for the club for £77 million in the summer.
But he’s in his best form now, and there is word on how City feel about the player…
Manchester City think ‘special’ Josko Gvardiol is the left-footed version of John Stones
The criticism of Gvardiol earlier this season was quite harsh.
The Croatian international admittedly had some poor outings, but he has been playing as a left-back – a position he has not operated in before.
He was always going to need a bit of time to find his feet, and it was never like he was bad week in, week out for City.
Seemingly, rival fans have enjoyed mocking Gvardiol because of how much money City paid to sign him from Gvardiol and the fact he didn’t hit the ground running straight away.
Now, it’s likely those fans are actually quite jealous of the player City have on their hands.
According to The Athletic, the club are extremely pleased with Gvardiol’s development. City are said to believe that Gvardiol is ‘special’, and that he is essentially the left-footed version of John Stones.
That is interesting, and may well point to a position change in the future.
Gvardiol could transition into hybrid role eventually
The claim that people at City feel Gvardiol is like Stones is quite interesting, because we all know that Stones plays a very intricate and complex hybrid role these days.
There have been times this season when Stones has been injured and some fans have called for Gvardiol to be given a chance to play that role, because of his ball-playing ability.
Perhaps it is something we will start to see from next season.
Pep Guardiola is no stranger to having his full-backs invert into midfield. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a player do it from the left side, with Joao Cancelo and Oleksandr Zinchenko the last players to do it.
But it’s great to see Gvardiol now really flying for City – realistically, it was always going to work out that way.
