Why Savio Means Man City Won't Miss Julian Alvarez
Savio (or Savinho) is Manchester City's only summer signing so far - but he's a big one. After a year without Riyad Mahrez in the side, he's a player with a similar profile to the Algerian. With Julian Alvarez now leaving too - Savio just might be able to facilitate the Manchester City system of old...
Transcript
00:00Hello everybody, Adam Monk here again with another video for 440, well about that, another
00:11video. So, little insider secret, this video was meant to be a preview for the charity
00:18Shield. And basically, long story short, I weighed it up, I mean you've seen what the
00:23title of the video is now, you know that's not what it is. I weighed up the pre-seasons
00:26of Manchester City and Manchester United and I came to this conclusion. So, to give you
00:30a quick overview, City took four senior players initially and Calvin Phillips was playing
00:35right back and he'll probably, in two weeks time, be playing at Boreham Wood. City won
00:39one game, it was a 4-2 win against Chelsea, Erling Haaland was gifted two of those goals
00:46so we can't really count that one and like, Rodri, Foden, Kyle Walker, John Stones, they're
00:51not back for the charity Shield so it's kind of hard to know who's going to play there.
00:56And as for Manchester United, boy, I mean, right, let's go through the injuries, so you've
00:59got Marcus Rashford, Anthony, Luke Shaw, Aron Wan-Bissaka, Lenny Yoro, Rasmus, Hoyland,
01:06I think that's off the top of my head. I think that's all the ones who were out there. And
01:10then obviously, Kobi Main who's not back for the charity Shield either and also Jadon Sancho
01:16was leading the line in the latter stages of the pre-season for United and consequently
01:21he scored zero goals because he doesn't play there. So, when weighing up who was going
01:25to play in the charity Shield, how it was going to pan out, I kind of came to the conclusion
01:29that it was going to be a disjointed mess and then I also realised I don't care because
01:33it's a friendly. They also shouldn't be giving out plates as trophies as well, the game's
01:37gone, Jeff. So anyway, let's talk about the bloke in question, Savio Savino. I don't really
01:44know what his name is so that's a good start. So Savio Savino, let's go with Savino. What
01:49do you need to know about Savino? Well, he plays predominantly right wing for Brazil,
01:54predominantly left wing for Girona or at least he did last season. He got 11 goals
01:59and 10 assists in La Liga and averages 2.8 dribbles per 90. And if you think about that
02:05kind of profile of player, he's left footed, likes to hug the width, can play on the right
02:09hand side and does for Brazil. Who does that remind you of? Koff Koff. Yeah, he's quite
02:16a similar profile to Riyad Mahrez in that sense and Riyad Mahrez, despite City winning
02:20the league last year, I think was sorely, sorely missed purely because of the goal output
02:24that he had in that side. Of course, he took set pieces to City. Savino might not, but
02:29just the profile of player to be able to hug that right hand side was sorely missed because
02:33City last season didn't really have many goals from out wide. Foden, of course, started playing
02:37in the number 10 position. Grealish protests against scoring goals and it was Docu's first
02:42season. So it was a bit of a sticky one for City, but Savio gives Pep a lot more tactical
02:48flexibility. Not only that, though, there's been a big transfer to La Liga this week and
02:52that is, of course, Julian Alvarez. So that begs the question. Some of you might be thinking
02:56some of the casuals. Well, surely Pep's going to sign another striker. I can assure you
03:00he is not because Alvarez's departure means false nine is back, baby. And if that's not
03:06a true story, I think it's a great story. So we'll just go with it anyway. I guess the
03:09overarching point I'm going to make in this video is that Savino, given the fact he can
03:12play on the left and the right, gives Pep two options that he couldn't deploy last season.
03:18He has done in previous seasons, but he wasn't able to last season. Not only that, though,
03:23Savio's attributes also maintain something in the squad that Pep already really, really
03:27values and that is ball carrying. Jack Grealish is very good at it. De Bruyne is very good
03:32at it. Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, City's Mateus Nunez as well because of Nunez's ball
03:37carrying ability. And you can see that 116 long progressive carries last season for
03:42Girona. Of course, a lot of them on the left hand side. But Pep, Pep always wants that.
03:47So system number one that Pep can revert back to is when Erling Haaland is fitting. It's
03:51a system very akin to what he played in the 17-18 season, whereby he had two pacey wingers,
03:57one on the left, one on the right. The one on the right was right footed. The one on
04:00the left was left footed. That was Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling. He can similarly replicate
04:05that now with Savino on the left and Jeremy Doku on the right. You'll remember these clips
04:10I'm about to show you here of Leroy Sane wreaking havoc in that season. And you'll remember
04:14when City got 100 points in that side, City were very, very transitional using De Bruyne's
04:19passing range and Sane's pace to get him behind. And also Raheem Sterling's as well, of course.
04:24This one being a prime example away at Selhurst Park where he broke through and finished into
04:28the roof of the net. Got another one for you here at home to Burnley, a defence splitting
04:32pass this one to Leroy Sane again from Kevin De Bruyne in transition, slotted away with
04:38aplomb. Now Jeremy Doku, for one, has already showcased that he can perform on the right-hand
04:41side for City, namely at home to Bournemouth, where he kept getting to the byline, that
04:46position Pep just loves his attackers to get to, where they can cut it across the face
04:50of the area. We know Doku's got that pace, but he's also got that dribbling ability as
04:54well to just completely twist someone's blood and then fire it across the face of goal.
04:58Pep wants that. He wants the ability for someone to be lethal in transition when there's space
05:01to exploit, but also if there's men behind the ball, players who can dribble. And like
05:05said at the start, Savino 2.8 attempted dribbles per 90. And comparing Doku and Savino last
05:11season as well, well Savino 104 take-ons completed, Doku 87. Of course, Savino played about eight
05:18more games than Jeremy Doku and Doku has slightly better take-on success with 57.62 compared
05:24to Savino's 53.61. But they're very, very similar players in terms of their ability
05:28to beat a man, whether there's space in behind or a bank of 10.
05:32And if you look at some of these Savino clips for Girona last season, where he's hugging
05:35that left-hand side, you're going to see this manoeuvre repeated a lot where he gets to
05:39the byline and plays a chipped ball to the back post. Now, no, this big fella, this big
05:44Eastern European gangly freak that Girona have got up front. I mean, Girona are a city
05:49sister club, so they're probably following in the footsteps of us. His name is Artem
05:53Dovbik. He's a big lad, he's strong and he likes to head the ball.
05:56Now Opta Analyst very kindly assembled Artem Dovbik's forward template and they banded
06:02together his percentile rank versus forwards with at least 500 minutes played. And they
06:06found that the player he was most similar to was Mr. Erling Haaland. And one thing we
06:12know about Erling Haaland is he loves those crosses towards the back post where it's floated
06:17and he has time to have that sort of hang time and jump over someone and nod it into
06:20the far corner. In this system, when Savino is on the left, you're going to see a hell
06:24of a lot of these assists where he beats a man, he clips it and there it is. Slam dunk.
06:29Couple of examples here as well. It was Jack Grealish clipping this one to the back post
06:32at Bramall Lane and then one at Old Trafford as well. Very, very similar. And that one
06:37was from Bernardo Silva. But now we've got a tricky winger who can do the business by
06:41himself. We don't even necessarily need those intricate combinations that led to those chances
06:45being created.
06:46Couple more examples of this as well. Another clipped cross as well. They're very, very
06:51and that big fella nearly scored there. I'll give you another one on the house as well.
06:55This evaded the big man but was headed at the back post nonetheless. Not only that though,
06:59you want the transitional Leroy Sané-esque kind of play where there's space in behind.
07:03Well, he can do that too. As seen here, hit into acres of space and then played across
07:07the face and that big fella missed again. Now, just as a side note, this Dov Bigfella
07:12that I'm seemingly slagging off actually won the Golden Boot in La Liga this season. But
07:17given the amount of chances that I'm looking at here that he did squander, he could have
07:20scored about 60. But we'll leave it at that. He still had a good season, 24 goals.
07:24But again, you want that pacing behind that transition. This is a simple ball slid down
07:28the line and he has just got the pace to get the better of the full-back. Cropped but gets
07:32back up.
07:33So overall, system one, when Erling Haaland's fit, Doco on the right, Savio on the left,
07:37transitional, direct, balls across the face of goal. Goal, because Haaland's a freak.
07:42What if Haaland's injured though? What do you do? Alvarez has gone. You don't worry,
07:46because when Haaland wasn't here, City played false nine and won two Premier League titles.
07:50Those false nine systems were really death by 1,000 passes. It was greelish, of course,
07:54Mr Ball retention himself hugging that left-hand side. Then you have Bernardo Silva or Riyad
07:58Mahrez, who I said was very stylistically similar, to Savino on that right-hand side.
08:03Players who can retain the ball, recycle it and then be incisive when they need to be.
08:07So when Haaland's injured, you put Kevin De Bruyne or Phil Foden in that false nine.
08:12You then have the likes of Oskar Bobb, Mateo Kovacic, who can fill that void in in the
08:16number 10 stroke eight position when you do have a false nine. And then you've got
08:20a very similar system to what you had two years ago.
08:23These were some examples of the goals scored way back. Then Riyad Mahrez here at West Bromwich
08:27Albion away. I mean, this is a typical Mahrez goal. You've seen about 50 of these, but we
08:31have that in our locker at the time. Sorry, we, I might be impartial, Manchester City.
08:35But also that ability for City to bide their time, use combinations out wide and then have
08:40one of those in-swinging crosses. I think that's a key thing. Left footed, right-hand
08:44side, right footed, left-hand side, those in-swinging crosses that are then consequently
08:49converted. To be fair, this was a bloody good header against Real Madrid, but still that
08:53kind of goal was missing from Manchester City last season.
08:55So here's some lovely Savino clips as well for you to indulge on that are very, very
08:59reminiscent of Riyad Mahrez. Do I even need to explain this one? Jinx inside, strike across
09:04the face of goal and it's in the back of the onion bag. This is, this is honestly just
09:08like, it's like watching Riyad Mahrez. It's so stylistically similar.
09:12And this one I think is the one I love the most. It's that kind of pause, that little
09:15way Riyad Mahrez used to do it as well, where he had that low centre of gravity and then
09:20he quickly jinxes inside onto his left foot and plays one of those in-swinging crosses
09:25across the face of goal. So stylistically, Savino is almost a hybridised combination
09:29of what City had in Riyad Mahrez, but also Leroy Sarne. So you've got that ball carrying
09:34ability, the ability to beat a man, get a ball across the face of goal or to bide your
09:39time, cut inside, finish or put on those in-swinging crosses. And he ticks every box that you really
09:44want from a winger. And now Alvarez has gone, the false nine is back, but also we can play,
09:49stop saying we. City can play a lot more directly with Erling Haaland up front. Anyway, guys,
09:54yes. Hope you enjoyed the video. Quick little overview of what you probably will be seeing
09:58from Pep Guardiola's Manchester City going forward this season. You might not see it
10:03in the charity shield though, because none of them will probably play. Savino will, I
10:07think. But most of them aren't there, so it won't be the finished article. Don't forget
10:12to subscribe though, guys. You can see the new edition of the mag here. Premier League
10:17season preview. It's the big one. So you can buy that at any good retailer if you wish.
10:22At underscore Adam Monk on socials, if you want to check me out. And yeah, that's it.
10:27Onwards and upwards. And next week, the season will properly start, which is what we're all
10:31waiting for. So I hope you've enjoyed the video, guys. Have a lovely day. I'll see you
10:35very soon. Goodbye.