Breaking Down What Thiago Alcantara Would Bring to Manchester City

The scale of the revolution Manchester City will undergo this summer isn’t yet known, but it’s likely to be significant. Pep Guardiola will arrive and set about raising the quality of City’s game. Increasing the intensity of their pressing, passing and movement will be his primary task, and given the way the side have played in recent months, that won’t be easy.

To do this, he will need his fitness coach, Lorenzo Buenaventura, to work the players hard in the pre-season. He’ll need the squad to buy into his ideas quickly and passionately. And he’ll need to bring new players in, the kind who are capable of playing the way the Spaniard wants.

Possession is key. Contrary to the trend sweeping the Premier League this year, Guardiola wants his side to keep the ball, pass sharply and make the opposition work intensely to try and reclaim it. If you do lose it, pressing in numbers as high up the pitch as possible is demanded.

The current City side are capable of that kind of football—but only in flashes. Whether they simply don’t have the personnel to pull it off with more regularity or their training sessions haven’t been good enough isn’t clear. Either way, Guardiola has a job on his hands altering the team’s culture.

Renato Sanches’ move to Bayern Munich may help him. According to German publication Kicker, it could mean Thiago Alcantara will be made available. If he is, Guardiola, a huge fan of the midfielder, is likely to make a move, and if he can land him, he will be one sizeable step closer to assembling a squad capable of playing in his image.

Following the arrival of Renato Sanches, the Bayern futures of Götze and Thiago are in doubt. Thiago might now follow Pep to City. [Kicker]

— City Watch (@City_Watch) May 10, 2016

Alcantara possesses everything Guardiola wants from a midfielder. He’s tactically astute and capable of operating in a number of different midfield …

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