Pep identifies “world class” star as Man City’s dream De Bruyne replacement

The Manchester Metropolis squad rebuild is firmly underway.

Final week, Kevin De Bruyne confirmed he might be leaving the membership this summer time, following the expiration of his contract.

He’ll comply with fellow sky blue stalwart Kyle Walker out the exit door whereas, as outlined by Philip Buckingham of the Athletic, Man Metropolis spent round £180m in January. That is greater than the opposite 19 Premier League golf equipment mixed, recruiting Abdukodir Khusanov, Omar Marmoush, Nico González, Vitor Reis, and Juma Bah.

Now, as Pep Guardiola makes an attempt to fill the big void that De Bruyne will go away behind, does he have his eyes on one of many Premier League’s perfect midfielders?

The newest on Man Metropolis curiosity in PL star

In line with UOL Esporte, through a report from Spain, Guardiola ‘has recognized’ Newcastle United’s Bruno Guimarães as his ‘perfect candidate’ to switch De Bruyne this summer time.

The Belgian is on his means out of The Etihad and the Cityzens have now set their sights on the Premier League midfielder to bolster their choices in the course of the park forward of subsequent season.

Nevertheless, it stays to be seen how a lot cash it can take for the Magpies to think about parting methods with their sensible Brazilian within the upcoming switch window.

The 27-year-old joined Newcastle again in January 2022 from Olympique Lyonnais for a reported £40m, making 146 appearances for the Magpies so far, scoring 20 targets, a key determine within the facet that gained final month’s EFL Cup, the primary main home trophy the membership have hoisted aloft for 70 years.

His supervisor Eddie Howe described Guimarães as “world class”, with Chris Waugh of the Athletic believing that, when the Brazilian is deployed with extra attacking freedom, there’s few higher within the Premier League.

Thus, his signing would clearly be a serious coup for Man Metropolis, however any potential deal might be removed from straight-forward.

Why Guimares can be the right de Bruyne alternative

Instinctively, it doesn’t really feel as if Guimarães can be the right stylistic match to switch De Bruyne.

The Belgian is called the cross grasp, with Sam Lee of the Athletic outlining {that a} whipped ball to the again put up could be very a lot his ‘trademark’ help.

As famous by Opta, since De Bruyne’s debut for Manchester Metropolis, no participant has registered extra assists (117) or created extra possibilities (827) than him throughout Europe’s prime 5 leagues.

Meantime, Guimarães is extra well-known for his ‘tenacity’ and management qualities, as documented by Jack Lang and Maurício Alencar of the Athletic, registering simply 24 assists in 146 appearances for Newcastle so far.

However, let’s now take a deeper dive into the numbers.

Because the desk outlines, regardless of having performed lower than half the variety of minutes that Guimarães has, De Bruyne’s assists, anticipated assists, and possibilities created numbers are nonetheless comparable, emphasizing his qualities in that regard.

However, the Brazilian has registered extra progressive passes, shot-creating actions, and through-balls, whereas accumulating exponentially extra ball recoveries, underlining that he’s extra of a helpful asset out of possession.

This implies that he can be an ideal alternative for de Bruyne within the sense that he may arrive with extra depth to his sport, attributable to his qualities out of possession and in deep build-up, which signifies that he may supply extra to the all-round workforce efficiency than the Belgian veteran.

Thus, regardless that this is able to not be a like-for-like alternative, Guimarães would certainly slot into Man Metropolis’s workforce completely, making this a switch they need to completely full, if in any respect attainable.