Pep Guardiola thinks that Julian Alvarez will allow Manchester City to return to a system that they have not been able to use for several years.
Having bested the Premier League for the last two years, Pep Guardiola now finds himself with not one but two goalscorers who specialise in being both clinical and prolific. Erling Haaland has wowed English football with nine goals in five games and Julian Alvarez netted twice on his first start this week.
Despite Alvarez being seen as a player to step in for Haaland, the pair were named in the same XI on Wednesday in the 6-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest to show the destruction they can cause when they play together. If it was a warning for the rest of the league, for Guardiola it was recognition that he can go back to using two strikers together in a way that he hasn't been able to since Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero were both undroppable going back to the 2017/18 season.
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An attempt to move to 3-5-2 that year was scuppered by injuries to full-backs but while there have been a few occasions since when the manager has used the tactic he hasn't had the firepower to consider it regularly until now. Whether to deploy it from the start or off the bench, Guardiola can use his strikers together as and when he needs them either to score goals in a crowded penalty area or to get back into games when City are chasing.
"It depends on the shape of the opponent as well but in some games we can do it. When we figure out that teams defend deep or in those positions, maybe we can think that we need guys with a sense of goal and we have guys to solve games because they have this quality.," he said.
"Everyone has their own quality and they have this quality. We have players behind who can make incredible assists like Gundogan, Kevin, Bernardo, Riyad and Phil and Rodri, - they have big talent to create assists for them.
"We cannot forget that you need a good process to have chances, to do well, not to concede transitions to avoid set-pieces, free-kicks, corners and throw-ins where every team can beat you. Of course in the final third when there are a lot of players in the 18-yard box, you need strikers.
"We had it in the past with Sergio, Gabriel and Raheem's sense of goal, and now we have another two different type of players. In games where we imagine one idea of the game or we are losing and have to win, I put on the guys with this quality."
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