Manchester City don’t ‘need’ to buy a striker – but how good could they be if they did?
Manchester City
By Sam Lee Sept 26, 2021 40
It seems strange to talk about Manchester City’s “need” for a striker after a magnificent victory at Chelsea given how Pep Guardiola’s side showed all of the qualities that took them to the title last season with about six midfielders on the pitch, but that’s almost the point.
They clearly don’t “need” one. They didn’t really have one last season but won the Premier League and got to the Champions League final anyway, and their problems in Porto were bigger than who prowled the penalty area.
They did all of that with false nines and “1000 passes” as Guardiola calls it, and that’s exactly what they did at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea played into City’s hands to an extent because they were far more conservative than in the Champions League final, but Guardiola’s tweaks and his players’ energy penned the Londoners in until Gabriel Jesus scored and they had to open up.
When they did, City showed the other qualities that took them so far last season, namely that gritty defending that you never really associated with the team before Ruben Dias joined. They threw themselves in front of everything in the box, the superb Bernardo Silva was back in there winning headers on a monstrous afternoon for him, but they were all excellent.
Joao Cancelo was at the heart of City’s threat down the left, and he battled for every loose ball in a way that he hasn’t always done. Rodri was superb on and off the ball — “exceptional”, as Guardiola put it. Dias and Aymeric Laporte battled hard to keep a lid on Timo Werner and, particularly, Romelu Lukaku, wrestling them to the ground if need be. Kyle Walker was the kind of dependable presence that he regularly is. Ederson was a safe pair of hands and an accurate pair of feet.
Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden hardly got to show their best qualities in their central, striker-ish roles, but they tied things together, forced Chelsea into losing the ball inside their own half so many times in the first 45 minutes, battled hard and shut off the counters. Jesus was integral to City’s pressing down their right-hand side and he was rewarded with a winning goal that was richly deserved and saw another cleared off the line. Jack Grealish was increasingly dangerous, although more of a cutting edge would be nice and he had a fine chance to make it 2-0.
Manchester City, Phil Foden
Foden battled hard in a central role against Chelsea (Photo: Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
That’s why City don’t “need” a striker — because they’ve got all of that. But it’s also why it would be very useful indeed if they did have one — because it would give them yet another way to win a game. It also highlights that, even if City had signed Harry Kane this summer, it wouldn’t have made Grealish, Jesus, Raheem Sterling or anybody else more clinical.
Perhaps somebody would have been attacking the low crosses that City put into the box, many of which came after half-time when City were 1-0 up, although their players are so well drilled in those situations that they all know where they should be anyway.
And no striker on earth scores every chance. It’s been too easy of late to imagine this mythical creature with a 100 per cent conversion rate who would have wrapped up City’s games within half an hour. Maybe if City had signed Kane, he would have missed those chances anyway.
But it is fair to say that players like Kane are noticeably more clinical than City’s current options, and that margin could count for a lot over a season.
Big chances since August 2016
Harry Kane
56.74
141
Sergio Aguero
53.7
108
Romelu Lukaku
53.42
73
Son Heung-Min
53.33
75
Jamie Vardy
52.11
142
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
49.45
91
Dele Alli
47.62
63
Raheem Sterling
47.27
110
Mohamed Salah
46.81
141
Sadio Mane
44.92
118
Alexandre Lacazette
44.44
72
Richarlison
42.86
63
Michail Antonio
42.65
68
Callum Wilson
42.22
90
Marcus Rashford
41.98
81
Dominic Calvert-Lewis
40.74
81
Roberto Firmino
40.63
96
Chris Wood
39.33
89
Gabriel Jesus
39.25
107
Christian Benteke
33.8
71
Only players with more than 60 “big chances”, which includes penalties, as defined by Opta.
Sterling, you might notice, is similar to Kane overall, but since the start of the 2019-20 season, his conversion rate has dropped to 39 per cent and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. Perhaps the bigger point is that City’s existing options need to be more clinical but it’s fair to say that the arrival of one killer finisher would give them something extra.
Who that player is exactly is open to interpretation. Guardiola clearly likes to use a false nine in these big games, so how would that work? Or is that generally a function of not having a traditional striker that he considers good enough?
It’s true that Guardiola dropped Sergio Aguero for games at Barcelona and Manchester United in his first 18 months in Manchester but once the Argentinian learned exactly what he needed to do, he played. Only in his absence has a false nine become the go-to big-game tactic — and one that clearly still works well.
City wanted Kane, in part, because he can play false and “traditional” No 9 roles, which is the dream scenario for Guardiola. Kane told City he could get Tottenham to sell him all summer, but he was misinformed. Only at the end of the window did he speak to Spurs owner Joe Lewis, who told him he would cost £200 million, and that was the end of it.
Maybe the circumstances will be different next summer but there are already noises around City and the player’s camp that Erling Haaland will be firmly back on the agenda. Guardiola believes he usually thrives in the space that City are not afforded, but whoever City buy would have to change their game to fit in anyway. Haaland’s conversion rate in all competitions since he joined Borussia Dortmund, by the way, is 57.7 per cent.
Still, that’s for the future. Guardiola has bristled at the suggestion already this season that City are missing a striker, pointing out, rather astutely, that people will say that when they lose and not say it when they win. So it’s only fair to talk about it when they win. Guardiola was desperate to get Kane and was even ready to bring in Cristiano Ronaldo. City don’t do panic buys, and the manager wasn’t sure how Ronaldo would fit into his dressing room, but above all else, he wanted his goals.
On Friday, Guardiola admitted as much for the first time, using the word “weapon”. That is always going to dictate the narrative around the match itself — certainly had City lost at Stamford Bridge.
“A striker is a striker, they live a little outside the bubble,” he said. “These are the most difficult players to get. We were privileged to have Sergio for so many years but unfortunately the last year he had bad injuries.
“We survived without him in a way, but when we played with him we had something extra. We have exceptional players but we don’t have this weapon that other teams like United or Chelsea or Tottenham have.
“We have to use what we can as a team. We do not have a player who can score 25 goals for himself so we have to do it as a team, and that is what we will try this season.”
On Saturday, they showed it was enough. At the home of the champions of Europe and league leaders, they have come away with a genuinely superb victory, which will boost hopes that they can do the same at Anfield next weekend. Why not?
City are missing something, but are still an incredible team. Maybe if they lose next weekend that will change to “City are an incredible team, but they are missing something”.
by Outcast » Sun Sep 26, 2021 9:13 am 
