With Manchester City having a fairly good squad to put it lightly; the necessity to sign players isn't always there. However, with Kyle Walker 33 years of age now and being heavily reliant on his pace, City may need to dip into the market very soon. Adam Monk takes a look at Jeremie Frimpong, and why he'd be perfect for Pep's side.
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00:00 [Music]
00:06 Now, the player in question that is currently at Manchester City, who I think will probably be leaving next out of that core of Pep Guardiola's team that he's assembled over the years,
00:15 is probably going to be Kyle Walker, because of his age, number one, he's 33 years of old now, and also he's the current captain of the club, which is actually a signifier that he's going to be the next one to leave if you look at the history books.
00:26 So the way that Pep Guardiola is assigned to play with captaincy in the City team is they actually have a hierarchy of five captains, and they usually rank number one, the primary captain, will be the most senior player in the squad.
00:38 So last season it was Gundogan, the season before that it was Fernandinho, and so on and so forth, and Kyle Walker now is the longest serving player in the team, and the oldest, hand in hand, he's been here as long as, like, Stones and Edison, but he's the oldest player of that cohort, therefore he is now the designated captain.
00:54 Now, of course, don't get me wrong, if you're good enough to play, then you're good enough to stay, that is absolutely true, but with Kyle Walker's age, and his main attribute being his pace, he is going to lose that at some point naturally, and the fact he's 33 and still as quick as he is, is mightily, mightily impressive, but you feel at some point in the near future, one or two years, it is going to catch up on him.
01:14 Now you can see here from this heat map, and rather surprisingly really to me, that Kyle Walker's played 20 games this season, and of course up and down the pitch there based on that heat map, and he plays an average of 89 minutes per game, so he doesn't really get substituted either.
01:26 This is kind of a shock, because he actually wasn't one of the core members of that treble running team from last season, it used to be John Stones, Manuela Kanji, Ruben Diaz, and Nathan Ake, and Walker was actually a bit part player from March up to May, when City won the treble.
01:41 And what he was mainly deployed as last season, and what I thought he'd be deployed as this season a bit more anyway, is a bit of a special ops agent to deal with the best left wingers in the world, so the Vinicius Juniors, the Kylian Mbappes, those kind of players, they are who he thrives against, as opposed to breaking down a deep block like a Sheffield United or a Luton.
02:01 And you can see here from playing so many games early on this season, that aren't against the likes of Vinicius Junior and Mbappe of course, because of where we are in the calendar year, his passing stats are very very underwhelming, and even though he's got 90% pass completion per game, that is actually the worst in the Manchester City team, meaning, and I know it from watching him for so long, he is the least technically gifted player in that team, so when he loses his place, I feel he's going to become very redundant very very quickly.
02:29 This means, surprise surprise, I think he is likely to leave probably in the summer at the end of this season. So what does City do to address that situation you ask? Well, fear not, because something called the City Football Group exists, and if you haven't been keeping tabs on La Liga, Girona are hovering about the top, first or second with Real Madrid at the moment, and they are currently owned, well they are owned, by City Football Group, the same owners as Manchester City.
02:54 And what City have been doing on the sly for a few years now, is loaning a lot of their prized youth assets over to Girona and other CFG clubs to let them blossom into top level footballers, and one of those at the moment happens to be, what seems to be, a top level right back, and his name is Jan Kooto, and his loan expires at the end of this season, and then he will be back at Manchester City.
03:17 And according to numerous reports, ok I know the one I've quoted here is from the Daily Star, take that with a pinch of salt, but other sources have said it as well, trust me, that Pep is apparently going to welcome Jan Kooto into the first team squad next season, and negotiate an improved long term deal with the right back, meaning that he is quite potentially here to stay, and here's why.
03:35 If we go back to Kyle Walker's heatmap this season here, and then compare it to Jan Kooto's heatmap here this season, they clearly operate in very very similar areas, and also play a very similar style of play, with the CFG wanting to play this sort of Pep Guardiola brand throughout all of their sister clubs.
03:50 And then statistically going forward, something that Kyle Walker really lacks, Jan Kooto is actually right up there in Europe for assists per 90 this season, and only Alex Grimaldo from Bayer Leverkusen is beating him, who has been in red hot form.
04:03 6 assists this season as opposed to Kyle Walker's 2 is a massive improvement, and all of the passing stats really are massively massively improved, apart from accurate passes per game, but that is because he's not playing with Rodri and Jon Stones and Ruben Diaz and Kevin De Bruyne and da da da.
04:16 I really do feel like he will be part of Manchester City's squad next season, and will really develop and blossom into a first team player over time, but if Kyle Walker leaves, someone needs to come in and fill that void instantly.
04:29 Now, I have 2 names in mind, one is more realistic than the other and I'm going to explain now, so we'll start with the realistic one.
04:36 His name is Jeremy Frimpong, you might have heard of him, Bayer Leverkusen, top of the Bundesliga, Xabi Alonso, he's there right back right now.
04:42 He was actually part of Manchester City's academy a few years ago, and then went on to Bayer Leverkusen and became this player that we now know him to be.
04:49 And in terms of an availability reason, and the reason I've ranked him first to be signed by Man City, Xabi Alonso is probably going to leave Bayer Leverkusen at the end of the season, meaning there might be a little bit of a clear out, especially with the younger crop of players being sought after with how well Bayer Leverkusen are playing, a lot of teams will be sniffing around.
05:06 Meaning that Bayer Leverkusen will probably sell, and I'm sure City will be able to sniff around in the transfer market and get Jeremy Frimpong should Alonso leave, which, he's going to leave and he's going to leave.
05:16 He's got 12 goals and assists this season, which is mightily, mightily impressive, but again, if you look at his heat map this season here, he's almost operating there as a fully-fledged winger, and Grimaldo is as well on the other flank.
05:27 It's the way that Alonso has played football this season, playing with that back-fibre, then pushing the full-backs so far up the pitch that they are operating as wingers in possession.
05:34 A bit like how Unai Emery's done at Aston Villa with Kasch and Dinha and Konza sometimes as well.
05:39 So how does he stack up when compared to other players in Europe?
05:42 Well, for progressive passes per 90, he's only second to Lucas Vazquez, who's playing in a phenomenal Real Madrid team.
05:48 He's top in Europe for touches in the attacking penalty area from the right-wing back position.
05:53 And he's also up there as well for progressive carries per 90 behind Leonardo Spinazzola, you remember him from Euro 2020.
06:00 But he's right up there in terms of that as well, so in a nutshell, he is really, really good at going forward.
06:06 It's also worth noting as well, just to go back to Kyle Walker's recovery pace, which would of course be losing if Kyle Walker left.
06:12 That Jeremy Frimpong does have that in abundance.
06:15 Don't need to go into too much detail on the fact that Jeremy Frimpong is quick, but he is and he also has that recovery pace.
06:20 So we wouldn't be losing that if we signed Frimpong in the place of Walker.
06:25 Interestingly as well, I actually compared and contrasted him to João Cancelo in particular, who was of course at Manchester City.
06:30 Well, he still is technically, but he will never play again.
06:33 But he was a very attack-minded full-back and Manchester City, with the solid defenders, managed to vacate for Cancelo and allow him the licence to play the way he wanted to.
06:41 If you compare here, he actually stacks up and beats him in a lot of these departments as well, meaning that Jeremy Frimpong, in that Manchester City team, may well be catered for.
06:50 In the sense that City have got Vardy, Old, Diaz, Okamji, Ake, Stones, such solid defenders that they can almost give Frimpong licence to get up and push to that right wing-back position and suffocate opposition, like pep teams of old really used to do.
07:03 And of course they still do, but Walker doesn't really press with the attack is what I'm saying, and Frimpong may well be able to do that.
07:10 Given the solidity of the other Manchester City players in that team.
07:13 So, I personally would love to see Jeremy Frimpong at Manchester City, and I think he is attainable.
07:19 The other player I'd love to see at Manchester City that I don't think is as attainable is Pedro Porro.
07:24 And that is because of this man, Mr. Daniel Levy himself. Yes, Mr. Hardball.
07:30 This is the clarity that everybody wanted, even Manchester City. Both clubs can move on now, Harry Kane can move on. A bid never went in which was acceptable for Daniel Levy to ever consider.
07:42 Look, when City signed Kyle Walker in 2017, I really think that that was the moment that I started to believe in the simulation theory.
07:49 Because Daniel Levy just does not sell to Premier League rivals, especially when players are at the top of the game.
07:54 But City managed to get him. Do I think history will repeat itself? Absolutely not.
07:58 Because Pedro Porro is a prized asset of Tottenham Hotspur, and they are on the up with Ange.
08:03 They also don't need the money as much as other Premier League teams as well, because they're turning over over 600 million a year in profits now,
08:08 putting him in the top 10 earners in terms of football clubs in the world. So, in terms of that, Levy has done an incredible job.
08:14 So, do I think he's attainable? No. And do you know what's bittersweet? He used to play for Manchester City as well, as did every other bloody left-back in Europe who's doing well right now.
08:22 We just seem to flog them and keep Kyle Walker. But, maybe we can get one of them back. I'm not so sure.
08:27 But Pedro Porro would also be an incredible fit.
08:30 So, yeah, they would be my ideal dream, whatever you want to call it, sign-ins, because I think Kyle Walker will be phased out of City soon.
08:39 Whereas the likes of De Bruyne, Bernardo, Rodri, they probably will stick around for longer.
08:43 Meaning we don't need to address those positions. Whereas Walker, yeah, that's going to be a gaping hole when he goes.
08:48 So, I think City should sign Jeremy Frimpong.
08:50 Anyway, guys, let me know what you think. I doubt that you don't rate Frimpong or Porro, so, yeah.
08:56 But do you think Manchester City should sign a player elsewhere in another position, perhaps?
09:00 Do you think there's somewhere else that needs addressing more immediately?
09:04 Of course, guys, as well, do not forget to subscribe. I hope you have a lovely day or evening whenever you are watching this.
09:09 I've been Adam Monk. Take care. I'll see you soon. Bye-bye.