Man City left to rue £81million ‘mistake’ as stunning Champions League stat emerges
Pep Guardiola doesn’t make many mistakes in the transfer market but right now a couple are very evident. Cole Palmer is the obvious one as he continues to tear up the Premier League with Chelsea, scoring 36 goals and making 21 assists in just 62 games. Guardiola’s fears have been realisedGetty Another one, Julian Alvarez might not quite have that same haul at new club Atletico Madrid after he joined in an £81million deal. He’s scored 11 times and assisted twice in 23 appearances. But he’s certainly proving to be a miss for the currently listless Man City. They have just one win in nine games across all competitions – a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest last week. Goal machine Erling Haaland, who often kept Alvarez out of the team during his spell with the club, has only managed four goals in that time too with no senior backup. In the exact same timeframe, Alvarez has scored five times including a double in the Champions League against Sparta Prague. And with Man City now attempting to avoid going a third straight game without a win in Europe’s premier competition they might now wish they still had the Argentine World Cup winner. The goals took Alvarez’s competition record to 11 goals and four assists in 22 appearances. But, highlighting his bit-part role at Man City, just 11 of these have been starts. And that now means Alvarez has an absolutely stunning Champions League record. GettyAlvarez is doing well with Atletico – and Guardiola might well be missing him[/caption] In fact, of players to have played 1,000+ minutes in the competitions history – only Haaland (69) has a better minutes per goal or assist ratio than Alvarez’s 74 minutes. Oh how they would have given for some of that firepower in their recent run of form. But this was a problem that Guardiola that foresaw. After the sale of Alvarez who scored 36 goals and made 18 assists in total for the club in 103 appearances, he admitted the £81m transfer might come back to haunt them. He said in late August: “I’m happy with the squad. We didn’t expect Julian was leaving, although he had conversations a long time ago with other clubs and his agent, so it could happen and in the end it happened. “We saw what we have, if we have many, many injuries it will be a problem, but in a few months Oscar Bobb will be back and Phil [Foden] is in that position, [James] McAtee can play in that position, [Ilkay] Gundogan can play in that position, Bernardo [Silva]… GettyAlvarez got the Player Of The Match award against Sparta Prague after his two goals[/caption] “They are different players to Erling of course. Maybe it is a mistake, I don’t know but I don’t like leaving players without playing for a long time. “When everyone is involved with a chance to play, the performance of the teams is always better.” Man City currently sit 17th out of 36 in the new-look Champions League table, just one point behind Atletico who sit in 15th. Those positions would see them enter the knockout phase play-offs but the Spaniards would be seeded and the Premier League champions unseeded. City aren’t the only European giants struggling within the new format either. Juventus (19th) and Real Madrid (24th) are also currently in a spot to qualify unseeded to the knockout phase play-offs. Meanwhile, Paris Saint-Germain (25th) are in the bottom 12 teams which would mean immediate elimination. And this season those teams exiting the Champions League in the league phase don’t get parachuted into the Europa League. You can hear Man City’s next Champions League clash, against Juventus, live on talkSPORT 2 on Wednesday.
Pep Guardiola doesn’t make many mistakes in the transfer market but right now a couple are very evident.
Cole Palmer is the obvious one as he continues to tear up the Premier League with Chelsea, scoring 36 goals and making 21 assists in just 62 games.
Another one, Julian Alvarez might not quite have that same haul at new club Atletico Madrid after he joined in an £81million deal.
He’s scored 11 times and assisted twice in 23 appearances.
But he’s certainly proving to be a miss for the currently listless Man City.
They have just one win in nine games across all competitions – a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest last week.
Goal machine Erling Haaland, who often kept Alvarez out of the team during his spell with the club, has only managed four goals in that time too with no senior backup.
In the exact same timeframe, Alvarez has scored five times including a double in the Champions League against Sparta Prague.
And with Man City now attempting to avoid going a third straight game without a win in Europe’s premier competition they might now wish they still had the Argentine World Cup winner.
The goals took Alvarez’s competition record to 11 goals and four assists in 22 appearances.
But, highlighting his bit-part role at Man City, just 11 of these have been starts.
And that now means Alvarez has an absolutely stunning Champions League record.
In fact, of players to have played 1,000+ minutes in the competitions history – only Haaland (69) has a better minutes per goal or assist ratio than Alvarez’s 74 minutes.
Oh how they would have given for some of that firepower in their recent run of form.
But this was a problem that Guardiola that foresaw.
After the sale of Alvarez who scored 36 goals and made 18 assists in total for the club in 103 appearances, he admitted the £81m transfer might come back to haunt them.
He said in late August: “I’m happy with the squad. We didn’t expect Julian was leaving, although he had conversations a long time ago with other clubs and his agent, so it could happen and in the end it happened.
“We saw what we have, if we have many, many injuries it will be a problem, but in a few months Oscar Bobb will be back and Phil [Foden] is in that position, [James] McAtee can play in that position, [Ilkay] Gundogan can play in that position, Bernardo [Silva]…
“They are different players to Erling of course. Maybe it is a mistake, I don’t know but I don’t like leaving players without playing for a long time.
“When everyone is involved with a chance to play, the performance of the teams is always better.”
Man City currently sit 17th out of 36 in the new-look Champions League table, just one point behind Atletico who sit in 15th.
Those positions would see them enter the knockout phase play-offs but the Spaniards would be seeded and the Premier League champions unseeded.
City aren’t the only European giants struggling within the new format either.
Juventus (19th) and Real Madrid (24th) are also currently in a spot to qualify unseeded to the knockout phase play-offs.
Meanwhile, Paris Saint-Germain (25th) are in the bottom 12 teams which would mean immediate elimination.
And this season those teams exiting the Champions League in the league phase don’t get parachuted into the Europa League.
You can hear Man City’s next Champions League clash, against Juventus, live on talkSPORT 2 on Wednesday.
