Manchester City’s season has been a pretty inconsistent one thus far. Positive results against Barcelona and Manchester United were overshadowed by harrowing defeats to Everton and Chelsea. Pep Guardiola’s blueprint hasn’t yet been implemented totally by the Sky Blues and there’s no question that the team needs fresh faces for Pep to go ahead with his ambitious project and replicate the success that he managed at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
The ageing squad can only achieve so much even when you have a trainer like Pep in the club. Although City did strengthen in the summer, a squad overhaul is never an overnight process and the fans are slowly realising that. While the defence has been woefully below standards, the midfield, which is a key component for a Guardiola side to thrive, hasn’t really been up to the mark. The maverick nature of Fernandinho certainly hasn’t helped and Pep has had to rely on Yaya Toure, who was an outcast in the first half of the season, to bail them out quite a few times.
While they started off with a bang, winning 10 games in a row, the Sky Blues could not sustain the momentum and saw their lead at the top cut down and then overtaken by Chelsea. Currently, in the 5th spot, Pep Guardiola is looking to add to his squad to sustain their recent resurgence.
In a bid to add more mettle to the midfield, they have been linked with a move for Barcelona midfield Ivan Rakitic whose stocks have fallen considerably at Camp Nou.
A part of Barcelona’s Champions League winning team not so long ago, Rakitic was seen as the natural heir to Xavi who attained legendary status at the club owing to his extraordinary displays at the middle of the park alongside Iniesta. His departure left a massive hole and Rakitic filled it considerably well. However, his spell of late has attracted more criticism than plaudits and perhaps a move would be the best thing for his career.
With Ilkay Gundogan out for a considerable amount of time, Rakitic could be a good option for Pep to go after. The Croatian still has a couple of years of top-flight football left in him and he is likely to thrive in the open nature of the Premier League. He has a lot of experience under his sleeves having played for the likes of Schalke in the Bundesliga, Sevilla and Barcelona in the La Liga and he’s one player who is likely to add more quality to the paper-thin Manchester City midfield.
