Man City could sign Alvarez replacement who’s one of the best in the world
da winzada777： All is well at Manchester City again, following back-to-back Premier League wins, achieving this for the first time since October.
da aposte e ganhe： First, they battled to a 2-0 victory over Leicester before, on Saturday, smashing an admittedly accommodating West Ham 4-1 at the Etihad, with Erling Haaland bagging a brace.
Nevertheless, Pep Guardiola’s side are still down in sixth, on course to score just 68 goals in the Premier League, which would represent the club’s lowest tally for 12 years, having scored, on average, a humongous 96 league goals per season across the last seven campaigns.
So, despite boasting Haaland who, as described by Paul Rowan of the Times, is a ‘goal-scoring robot,’ Man City could certainly do with adding some attacking firepower to their ranks.
Manchester City looking at red hot striker
According to a report by from French publication Foot Mercato over the weekend, Manchester City have made an “early move” as they attempt to sign Eintracht Frankfurt striker Omar Marmoush, claiming the player is “very excited about the [Man City] project”.
Darren Looney of Caught Offside believes the Egyptian forward is valued at €70m, around £58m, although TEAMtalk adds that any potential move is only likely to happen “in the summer” at the earliest.
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So who is Marmoush and why is he one of Europe’s hottest properties?
Born in Cairo, the 25-year-old has spent the majority of his senior career in Germany, joining Wolfsburg from Wadi Degla in 2017, loaned out to both St. Pauli and Stuttgart, before joining Eintracht Frankfurt in 2023 on a Bosman.
During his debut season with die Adler, he scored a respectable 17 goals in all competitions, before taking his game to a whole nother stratosphere during this campaign so far.
In 24 appearances this season, Marmoush has scored 18 goals, as well as bagging 12 assists, on target four times in the Europa League, while he’s currently the second top-scorer in the Bundesliga, just one behind Torjägerkanone holder Harry Kane.
As noted by Opta, his tally of 13 hinrunde goals is the joint-second most by any Frankfurt player ahead of the winter pause in Bundesliga history, bettered only by Theofanis Gekas’ tally of 14 in 2010/11.
This led one German football expert and analyst on social media to describe him as “one of the best strikers in the world right now”, hence why Manchester City are so eager to secure his services.
How Omar Marmoush would improve Manchester City
Guardiola himself stated “maybe it was a mistake” to sell Julián Álvarez this summer without replacing him, even if they did receive a rather large £81.5m fee from Atlético Madrid for the Argentine striker.
So, if Marmoush is going to replace Álvarez, how do the pair compare?
Omar Marmoush vs Julián Álvarez comparison (23/24 & 24/25)
Statistic
Omar Marmoush
Julián Álvarez
Appearances
63
87
Minutes
4,870
5,567
Goals
35
31
Assists
17
13
Goals – xG
+6.8
+5.3
Shots
189
185
Shots on target %
40.7%
43.8%
Shot-creating actions
211
209
Goal-creating actions
40
28
Touches
1,953
2,560
Passes
871
1,640
Statistics courtesy of FBref.com
As outlined in the table above, Marmoush and Álvarez have very different player profiles, but that may not be a bad thing.
The Egyptian is more of an out-and-out centre-forward, hence why he’s scored more goals, registered more assists and had more shots since the start of last season, while his goals – xG figure of +6.8 is extremely impressive; he’s currently the third-most clinical player across Europe’s top-five leagues this season, behind Premier League duo Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha.
Meantime, Álvarez’s goals – xG figure of +5.3, since the start of last season, is also very fantastic, even though the Argentine is more of an all-round player, emphasised by the fact he attempted significantly more passes and had vastly more touches than Marmoush during the same time-frame.
So, should this deal go through, it would be fascinating to see how Marmoush lines up alongside Haaland.
Well, considering that, behind the Norwegian, only Phil Foden and Joško Gvardiol have scored four or more goals across all competitions this season, this squad does lack firepower and support for their primary front-man.
Thus, two of the most prolific attackers in Europe linking-up would be a frightening prospect for all of Man City’s rivals.
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