Yes, I’ve done the ‘video watching thing’ over the many weeks we were linked with the 21-year-old Spaniard. I read a few articles about him too.
When having doubts about his defensive qualities, I also ‘put it out there’ that I’d like to hear the opinion of an Anderlecht fan and one got back to me really quickly, saying, “Worked hard and can't say many goals against were his fault, was probably Anderlecht's best player last season. I will miss him when he is gone”. Very nice words indeed about the young man.
So, what ARE we getting?
- Terrific acceleration / burst of speed.
- Very good pace in general.
- He’s a grafter, which appears to be backed up by my Anderlecht friend’s comments about him working hard for them. What I will add on that also is having watched his ‘Welcome to Manchester City’ video on our club’s own website; he seems to have a great attitude generally.
- Like Erling Haaland, he’s a Manchester City fan. I think this might be our new recruitment policy, by the way, so if there are any young Manchester City fans reading this then start training hard and you never know…
- He’s a good passer – good short-to-medium range passer but good at long, cross-field passes too.
- Similarly, he’s an even better / excellent crosser of the ball from the wing.
- I read somewhere that he’s got a crackin’ left-foot shot on him too.
Yeah but…aren’t we signing a left-wing back?
On the face of it, it does sound like…‘Here we go again; another attacking player who has been asked to convert to a more-defensive position’, doesn’t it?
I already knew before he signed, from what I’d read, that he used to play as a left-winger and he certainly has all the attributes to be just that. But when I heard from the man himself that he used to also play as an attacking midfielder and even a striker; it had me raising my eyebrows even more with regards to us getting yet another ‘converted left-wing back’ to add to our history of converted left-wing backs.
However, by all accounts his old boss, one Vincent Kompany, spotted something in Sergio and did a crackin’ job of adapting him to a deeper role.
That all sounds fine but can he tackle?
I have to say that from all the footage I’ve seen, I didn’t see much actual tackling and one well-established source had his tackling ability rated as 5/10. He doesn’t look like a “tackler” ‘per se’ at this moment in time of his young career BUT…I saw him make a lot of interceptions / blocks and generally being a nuisance to any attacking right-winger attempting to get past him and his defence. One thing’s for sure, his pace definitely helps him to track dangerous attacking players and it will help him get back should he / we get ‘caught on the hop’.
If I was to try ‘n’ sum him up to a City fan who knew nothing whatsoever about him, I might be tempted to say…imagine a slightly smaller OleksandrZinchenko; one with the same great attitude & work rate but faster; with a better pass, cross and shot capability. Time will tell on that but I don’t think I’d be far off with that comparison.
And he goes straight into the squad too (number 21 if you didn’t know and was wondering); isn’t being loaned out and will compete with right-wing back Joao Cancelo & specialist youth, left-wing back, Josh Wilson-Esbrand for a place on the left-defensive flank.
11M-squid plus add-ons for a young lad with abilities, plenty of promise and a great attitude is something of a bargain too these days, I’d say.
And here’s a bonus – with all those attributes that I’ve just mentioned plus his previous experience in more advance positions; what the club have done also, in my opinion, is give us another attacking option down that left flank. We recently lost Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, who could / did play there, and with Jack Grealish far from convincing me, as yet; having the option of Sergio playing ahead of, say, Joao Cancelo can only be a good thing. It could even be the spark Jack needs after perhaps feeling less pressure in the last few weeks as he watched both Raheem & Gabriel depart…
Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read and just a reminder that I won’t be doing a pre-match blog posting ahead of our away trip to Newcastle United due to going away on holiday. Hopefully I’ll be back blogging ahead of our home game against Crystal Palace the following weekend.
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