If recent reports are to be believed then Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has opened talks with his next high profile target, Bayern Munich’s versatile David Alaba. City’s officials have held talks with the player’s representatives in the last few weeks as Guardiola is ready to spend £40m on the 24-year old. Alaba has previously worked under Guardiola for three years when the Spaniard was in charge of Bayern and has won a host of trophies under him including three consecutive Bundesliga titles.
Manchester City have already spent a lot of money adding players like Ilkay Gundogan, Leroy Sane, John Stones, Nolito, Claudio Bravo and Gabriel Jesus in their ranks. Stones, in particular, has been a player needed to cover the central defence with Vincent Kompany out injured. A fee of £47.5m which could rise to £50m was paid to Everton making Stones the most expensive defender in history.
The incoming players have gave us an idea of how Guardiola intends to shape his team and with the use of certain players in tactically different roles, there has been already some very commanding displays by virtue of which the Citizens now sit on the top of the Premier league table.
Over the duration of his managerial career, we have seen how obsessed the Manchester City boss is with tactics, striving hard to reinvent his strategies to always stay ahead of the curve. In order to successfully implement those strategies, the primary need alongside quality is tactical maturity and versatility.
Over the years, Pep Guardiola’s teams have had players who excelled on those fronts like none other. In the modern world of football, it is absolutely vital to have that tactical understanding of the game from an early age and at 24-years of age there is arguably no one better at it than David Alaba.
The Austrian is capable of playing in almost all the different zones of the pitch without having any effect on his impact and as he demonstrated for both club and country in recent years playing as a defender, midfielder and even as a forward on occasions.
At Bayern Munich, Alaba played and excelled as a left back under Jupp Heynckes but under Guardiola, Alaba often filled in as the left sided centre-back in a typical Guardiola 3-3-4 system which morphed to a 3-4-3 in between. After the signing of Juan Bernat, the Austrian was moved further up the pitch as he slotted in on the left side of Xabi Alonso with Philip Lahm being stationed on the other side in a 4-3-3 system.
An excellent 1 v 1 defender having great ability in tackling covering and reading of the game with being equally adept in his passing, vision, shooting and set piece abilities, David Alaba is one player who can do everything on the pitch effectively.
Signing him thus would not only elevate the level of the Manchester City squad but also will instantly provide Guardiola with the tactical edge over the other managers of the Premier League. David Alaba joining City would be a great advert for the Premier League in general and will certainly give a lot of other managers lots to think about from the tactical point of view.
