If Manchester City supporters are expecting Nico González to be a silver bullet in midfield, they may want to calm their hopes. The 23-year-old Spaniard has arrived from Porto for £50m to help fill the huge hole left by his compatriot Rodri in front of the defence but the former Barcelona man is a very different player. City will need to adapt to him, rather than the other way round, if they are to solve their gaping problem.
Pep Guardiola’s and City’s difficulties have been glaringly apparent since Rodri tore a cruciate ligament in September. They have lacked physicality and mobility in midfield, leaving them to endure a dreadful run, and arguably the best coach of his generation has been unable to find a solution with what was available to him. González’s welcome to England, and the first test of his capabilities and La Masia upbringing, could come at Leyton Orient of League One in the FA Cup on Saturday.
He has six goals in 24 appearances for Porto this season, an indication of his ambition to get forward. “It’s hard to beat him one-on-one,” says the Arouca midfielder David Simão, who has played against him on three occasions. “He’s a physical guy but also has great technical qualities. He doesn’t play a lot of vertical passes – he’s more likely to go diagonal or to the side. At City he will have the quality to give short passes.
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“One of his great qualities is his eye for goal. When he gets into the box, he is a danger in the air. He’s a tall guy for a midfielder and he is great at timing his runs. I faced him a few games when Porto were not in a good moment and he still wanted plenty of the ball. He had the personality to ask for the ball, to take the ball, to try to put Porto on the front foot. He likes to go box-to-box. He’s not as intense in his running as Matheus Nunes but Nico has more technical quality.”
The regular combination of Ilkay Gündogan and Mateo Kovacic has offered little comfort, despite their experience. Nunes is being used at right-back because he has never fully earned Guardiola’s trust, leaving City light on options. Gündogan has failed to repeat the form of his first spell in Manchester, his lack of mobility an obvious flaw, and Kovacic is a regular user of the self-destruct button when trying to take the ball up the pitch. González is a counter-balance of those two issues thanks to his running and ability on the ball but he can also read play to cut out danger and is happy to battle to win possession.
“He can replace Rodri,” says Artiga. “The problem he had before was that he was continually compared to Busquets and players cannot be cloned. Busquets was one, Nico is another and Rodri is another. What is clear is that Nico is one of the best in his position and I think that he can fit in perfectly. The mistake would be to try again to compare him with Rodri because he is a player who can play in his position but with different characteristics from Rodri and he can do it very well for City.”
