With Álvaro Morata and Memphis Depay leaving the club and with Antoine Griezmann approaching 34 years of age, it is clear that Atlético needed a new striker that could elevate them to the next level after not being able to surpass Barcelona or Real Madrid in the table since 2021 when they won the league.

For this, they have already signed Alexander Sørloth as a replacement for Morata. However, they have also signed World Cup winner Julián Álvarez for €75 million who had some stellar performances for Manchester City last season. In this article, we will be investigating how Julián Álvarez can improve the current Atlético Madrid squad.

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Name: Julián Álvarez

Position: Center Forward / Attacking Midfielder

Country: Argentina

Age: 24

Height: 170cm

Preferred Foot: Right

Last Club: Manchester City

Julián Álvarez began his career in CA Atalaya before he joined River Plate in 2016. He joined River Plate’s first team in 2019 and stayed there for 3 seasons where he shone, which led to his signing to Manchester City for €17 million. He stayed 6 more months in Argentina on loan before he went to Manchester where he has played for the past 2 seasons.

In this image, we can see that Julián Álvarez is the player with the least xG and goals scored. This highlights his poor ability to get into goal-scoring positions, nonetheless, this tells us the profile of Julián Álvarez and that he isn’t a player that stays up front waiting for the ball to come to him.

As we can see, in this image, Julián Álvarez has the most expected assists and assists showcasing his ability to generate goal-scoring opportunities. This is something important for the probable role he will be playing at Atlético as he will be playing a role similar to that of Griezmann, with them being similar players.

Here we can observe that dribbling is perhaps not one of Julián Álvarez’s strengths as he doesn’t usually perform them, nonetheless, it is not a weakness either. However, it is true that his dribbling is better than that of Griezmann showing that it is not an important aspect of his position.

From this image, we can deduce that Julián Álvarez is very involved in the play with high precision as well and with similar values to those of Griezmann. This is important for Atlético Madrid as if he is to replace the aging Griezmann it is important for him to be on the ball and to get involved and be important in possession.

This chart compares Julián Álvarez with the rest of the Premier League players in his position using percentiles in different aspects of the game. The percentiles work in the way that whatever the number, he is better than that percentage of players. If it is 70, he is better than 70%.

In this chart, we can observe that Julián Álvarez is in a very high percentile for assists and expected assists, as well as being in the 99th percentile for shot-creating actions. This highlights that he is one of the best center forwards in the world when it comes to creating goal-scoring opportunities. 

However, we can also observe that Julián has very average values in xG and goals scored, this is something he must improve if he is to be called upon the best center forwards in the world. 

In addition, we can see that he is a player who is very involved in the possession of his team as a striker being in the 99th percentile for passes attempted and for touches. This showcases that he is an important figure when his team is on the ball, with the ability to also play progressive passes, being in the 91st percentile. This is something that can be very useful for Simeone as this can help them elevate their game in possession and be a dominant force in the league.

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Finally, we can see that his defensive numbers are not as high and this perhaps is due to his lack of commitment when it comes to defending. If that is the case he will have to change this as Simeone is a demanding manager when off the ball.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Julián Álvarez is an exceptional player and can be a huge addition to Atlético Madrid. This is because he is a very similar player to Antoine Griezmann, and last season Atlético suffered a lot when Griezmann wasn’t on the pitch so having a player like Julián adds depth and quality to a position that needed it.

He has the ability to create opportunities just like Griezmann as well as help in the possession of Atlético Madrid, having played and excelled under Pep Guardiola. The only question is who Simeone will bench or if there is space for both Griezmann and Julián Álvarez on the pitch, though, this may seem quite challenging as they are both very similar players. In addition, he will have to adapt to the Spanish League, however, seeing his technical attributes there are few reasons to believe that he will have issues adapting.

By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Marcelo Endelli / Getty Images