Is Ilkay Gundogan strange deal for Barcelona? Sort of, but Xavi is totally convinced

When Barcelona missed out on signing Lionel Messi, coach Xavi and the club’s sporting directors quickly turned to Ilkay Gundogan.

The Spanish champions had been speaking with player representatives since early 2023, but accelerated their pursuit this month. The Manchester City captain will officially join them on a free transfer on July 1.

Barcelona’s work in the transfer market is limited due to their financial problems. The club is still heavily indebted and still unable to sign new players as it is in breach of La Liga’s rules on salary spending. And those charged with finding a solution to this will hold a key meeting on Wednesday – and the athlete He will report in more detail on this later this week.

But today’s focus is on Gundogan because looking beyond his undoubted quality and experience, there is an argument that his signing may not be the most logical first move of the summer for a club that needs to bolster other key positions while money is tight, including In that defensive midfield. Gundogan will become one of the highest paid players in the team.

here, Athletic John Muller and Pol Ballus explore this argument and share more details on how Barcelona sees fit.

John Mueller: “Gundugan does not have a clear role that would improve Barcelona’s starting line-up immediately”

Ilkay Gundogan is an excellent player. Everyone agrees. No, he’s not young at 32, but even two weeks ago he was still a key figure at Guardiola City, starting almost every big game all the way to a hat-trick. For Barcelona, ​​signing a veteran midfielder of his caliber on a free transfer looks, on the face of it, like a feat.

In terms of style, there is a lot to love about the Catalan club here. Gundogan is technically skilled and tactically adroit, and has trained in the same positional play that Xavi learned from Guardiola. He is a good short passer who can play between the lines in tight spaces and is a better runner off the ball, with a particular knack for slipping into the penalty area from a striker’s shoulder to score an astonishing number of goals. More importantly for a Barcelona side who lived off their defense last season, he was also a clever piece in Guardiola’s pressing schemes.

In terms of the role, though, where he fits is less clear. The concern, in short, is that his best position is Pedri and his second favorite belongs to Frenkie de Jong, And while he will add a new dimension to Barcelona’s attack, he may not be the type the team is looking for.

In City’s 3-2-2-3 last spring – which Xavi quickly adapted to Barcelona – Gundogan lined up as the left attacking midfielder, operating between the lines and favoring the left half, with Pedri also preferring to operate. , while Kevin De Bruyne went out to either wing, similar to Javi. If Gundogan plays alongside Pedri, one of them will move to the right, as neither right-hander feels entirely comfortable curling inwards at the top of the box.

It’s true that Pedri was sometimes paced over the past season so that Javi could play as a false left winger, a role that included staying high and wide early in training and then turning inside when left-back Alejandro Balde darted up the line. Gundogan does not have the legs to pretend to be a winger and has never been the kind of midfielder who runs wide and crosses. This would make him completely unsuitable for a false left winger role or a right attacking midfield slot for Barcelona, ​​where Jaffe’s overlapping line helps create space for the right winger (Osmane Dembele or Rafinha) to face the defenders. -v-one, the source of much of the creativity in Xavi’s attack.

How about something deeper? In years past, Gundogan fell alongside Rodri in the City build-up as a left midfielder. He is not the coordinating, high-volume type who plays the ball constantly, tidying up the side, but he is clean and efficient at linking play. The problem, again, is that he has historically favored the left side. This is de Jong’s turf, where he is coming off his best season in a Barcelona shirt. Either midfielder can play on the right, with Sergio Busquets occasionally working alongside De Jong, but as a pair they may not provide enough defensive cover. Xavi’s experiences with Eric Garcia in the role suggest he wants a John Stones hybrid to lay anchor in front of the backline while De Jong roams.

The word is that Xavi sees Gundogan mainly as an attacking midfielder, a source of creativity to power his attack through the middle and take some of the load off the wings. It suggests that he will alternate with Pedri and Javi and play something like his last role with City. But what kind of creativity will he add?

In six seasons at City, in one of the best attacks in the world, Gundogan averaged 0.15 passes expected per 90 minutes. This is closer to the level of chance creation De Jong (0.15 xA per 90 last season) and Gavi (0.13) than it is to Pedri (0.23). Gundogan’s best attacking numbers came in 2021-22, when he played a secondary role in a side that more often than not used one or even two false numbers, allowing him to slip into the box more. During 2022-23, Gundogan has been working with a traditional striker in Erling Haaland, more than just a maker, rarely making high-value shots. When he plays passes into the penalty area, it’s usually short, wide-angled balls to a runner on the left side of the box – a type of pass that suits Haaland far more than Lewandowski.

Instead of finishing balls, what Gundogan provides is a second runner in the penalty area, who is good at sneaking into dangerous pockets behind and to the left of the striker. This is something neither Pedri nor Gavi do very often, and it could give Lewandowski some much-needed help to finish Barcelona’s attacks. It is possible to imagine Pedri and Dembele handling the gradual passing while Gundogan runs the left channel as an assist goal.

The bottom line is that Barcelona get a talented and versatile player in Gundogan, but not a conspicuous player who would improve the starting line-up immediately. He could end up being an all-purpose depth option behind Pedri, De Jong and Gavi, the closest to Pedri in position and style but capable of filling in for any of the three. This isn’t a bad piece to add, but it’s not a huge upgrade or solution to their biggest office needs.

Paul Ballos: “Gundogan is the best option Barcelona had to strengthen in what they see as a key field”

Gundogan’s signing solves a big problem that Xavi first identified last April and has been trying to solve since then.

Barcelona finished the 2021-22 season without Pedri, who suffered a hamstring injury in the Europa League, which lost to Eintracht Frankfurt. They really missed him as their season wore off; Without the young star midfielder, the team lacked pace and creativity in attack.

That summer, as soon as Xavi knew Lewandowski was going to sign, a plan was put in place to add strength in depth on the wings, with the aim of supporting Pedri in his creative responsibilities.

With one of the best hunters in the world on your team, it made sense for the manager to try to add more players wide to supply his new target man.

However, the major finale for Xavi since his first full season at Barcelona has seen a change in strategy. He now sees that in order to get his team to play the football they want, he has to trust his midfielders more than his wingers.

A mid-season tactical shift saw Barcelona do just that, with a four-man midfielder system helping propel the team to La Liga victory. This change inspired their best performances but again – when injuries hit, there were problems.

In the last El Clasico of the season, when Real Madrid beat Barcelona 4-0 in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final, Xavi had to use Sergi Roberto and Frank Kessie in attacking midfield. Needs more depth in the situation.

Right after winning La Liga this season, Xavi said, in response to a question from who the athlete On the change in his tactical approach.

“We felt we handled possession better in the opposition half, so I gave priority to players who don’t lose possession. At the end of the day, that’s how I see football. For me, football is about midfielders, or players who don’t lose possession.”

When Pedri and Javi were absent, it was clear that Barcelona did not have anyone who could work the inner pockets of the final third of the field as Xavi would like. This is where Gundogan comes in. Now they have arguably the best European trio in this department.

There is a case to be made that, looking at the numbers and comparing them to Pedri and Jaffe, Gundogan’s influence will not necessarily be transformative. But there is another major reason why the club pushed so hard to sign him – diversity.

Gundogan landed in Manchester from Borussia Dortmund in 2016 as a classic number eight. Three years later, when he helped Guardiola’s side win a second successive Premier League title, he acted as the sole central midfielder as City finished the season with 14 consecutive victories.

In 2021, City were crowned English champions, with Gundogan regularly playing as a false nine. He finished that season as the team’s top scorer in the league, with 13 goals. During 2022-23, when City won the treble, he was mainly playing as a number 10 by the time the critical games came around. In simple terms, he did it all. He listened, learned and executed.

At the age of 32, some might question the wisdom of offering Gundogan a two-year deal that could potentially extend to three. City only offered a one-year extension with an option for a second year.

In Barcelona, ​​he will have the highest salary in the team. They hope he continues to perform as he has for a long time to come and also hope that his influence will help shape the team’s two young stars, Jaffe and Badri.

Last February, Pedri revealed how Xavi asked him to play near the penalty area. “It’s something I want to improve and feel like I’m doing it lately,” he said.

The 20-year-old finished last season with seven goals, his best return with Barcelona to date. When the team returns for pre-season training, he will share the dressing room with one of the best players in the world upon reaching the penalty area from midfield. Gundogan has scored more than 10 goals over the past three consecutive seasons. If you are looking for a role model for Pedri, we are here.

Bernardo Silva was Xavi’s favorite last summer. There has been a lot of excitement about Messi’s potential comeback this year. But Gundogan is without a doubt the best option available to Barcelona to boost what they see as a key area.

(Top photo: Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images)