Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid: The Start of the Protagonist Era
At 24 years of age, Julian Alvarez has garnered the reputation of a serial winner. He won the Argentine Primera División, the Copa Argentina, the Supercopa Argentina, the Trofeo de Campeones, the Copa Libertadores and the Recopa Sudamericana with boyhood club River Plate before heading across the Atlantic. Since joining Manchester City, he’s served as a reliable backup to Erling Haaland and a versatile jack-of-all-trades under Pep Guardiola, winning an FA Cup, a UEFA Champions League, a FIFA Club World Cup, a UEFA Super Cup, and two Premier League titles. Today, he’s headed for Spain after joining Atlético Madrid on a six-year contract.
At the World Cup in 2022, he succeeded in displacing one of Europe’s most potent strikers, Lautaro Martinez, as a starting centre-forward and proved to the whole world that he was not just some talented youngster who got called up to the Argentine squad on the mere basis that he played for one of the best teams in Europe. He ended the tournament with four goals and one assist in five starts in his first World Cup, leading Argentina to their first World Cup title since 1986.
From that point, he’s earned the right to be regarded as one of the best attacking talents in Europe despite the fact that he has featured more prominently as a backup option throughout his stay in Europe. But in the real sense, how many players are really backup options at Man City?
Pep Guardiola’s team can be likened to a winning machine. Manchester City have now won the Premier League title four times in a row! And one of the keys to achieving this unprecedented level of success has been Guardiola utilising every tool at his disposal, every player is a potent weapon in an arsenal, each one of the members of City’s title winning squads in recent times was like a piece in a jigsaw.
Nonetheless, when the conversation shifts and the question arises as to who is the main man, certain names come to mind: Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Erling Haaland and quite recently, Phil Foden. Every piece is important but as has been the case, some pieces feature and will always do so more prominently.
How then has the stock of Julian Alvarez risen so high that Atletico Madrid were willing to pay more than triple the £14 million Manchester City paid for him in January 2022? For a player like Alvarez, the talent and potential to be a world-beater was always there to see for everyone who cared to pay attention.
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18 goals and six assists in 26 appearances in all competitions for Argentinian club, River Plate the season before his move to Man City was no mean feat. In his first ever season for the Premier League champions, Julian Alvarez was able to manage 17 goals and five assists in 49 appearances in all competitions, an impressive tally for a backup striker as he was restricted to just 23 starts in the 2022/23 season, featuring more prominently in domestic cup competitions for Man City.
Meanwhile, it was just 13 Premier League starts out of his 31 appearances and four UCL starts in Man City’s first ever triumph. The numbers showed that Alvarez was always going to be a reliable option, and asides the numbers, he offered Pep Guardiola the option of tactical flexibility: he was not there just to be a big man upfront or a competition for Erling Haaland’s spot.
He was sometimes fielded alongside the Norwegian, either playing as a winger or playing through the lines behind the striker as an attacking midfielder, the sort of dynamism that could prove very useful to any team, and Alvarez even became a more influential player at Man City last season, scoring more goals, creating more goals, and gaining more minutes and starts. 19 goals and 13 assists in 54 appearances in all competitions for the Cityzens.
His stock had clearly risen and this time, he started and featured prominently in a lot more games than he did during his first season. 31 Premier League starts and a total of 36 games played in the Premier League last season, absolutely no way he could be regarded as a bench warmer or super sub for the part he played in Man City’s success last season.
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His versatility did help his case in a fight for a starting berth though as there were games he played upfront alongside Erling Haaland as a supporting striker, he also played several times as an attacking midfielder and a winger across both flanks doing all these to very good effect. He was always an option available in case Guardiola decided to go for a different approach and utilise a player different from the conventional winger (Jeremy Doku), conventional attacking midfielder (De Bruyne), or conventional number 9 (Haaland).
Amongst the top performers for Manchester City in their Premier League title-winning campaign last season, Alvarez features prominently. He was the club’s third-highest goalscorer in the league with 11 goals behind Haaland (27) and Foden (19) while also having the second highest Expected Goals (13.12) behind Haaland’s 29.32.
Further highlighting the fact that Alvarez is not just a conventional number 9 who is only about goalscoring, he registered the second highest assists in the league for Man City (9) with only De Bruyne (10) registering more, and his expected assists of 6.29 was fourth on the list amongst his Man City teammates behind seasoned creators like Bernado Silva (7.97), De Bruyne (7.13), and Foden (6.93).
Generally, only Haaland (32) and Foden (27) were directly involved in more goals than Alvarez (20) in the Premier League for Man City last season, and his numbers for goal involvements come as no surprise at all as his total shots stood at a rate of 2.7 per game yet again behind only Premier League top scorer, Erling Haaland (3.9) and player of the season, Phil Foden (3.0).
Even in terms of key passes, Alvarez still featured among the top three for Man City as only De Bruyne’s 3.3 and Foden’s 2.1 bettered his 1.9 key passes per game. There is no gainsaying that Alvarez is an all-action forward, he can do it all. That rare ability to contribute to all facets of attacking play is a no-brainer.
“His numbers, the way he’s played, discover in the last game he can play wider have another in that position, it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t score, but we’ve seen how fast and clinical he is and we are so happy with him. He can play wide but I see him more in central positions.” Pep Guardiola had said in September 2022 when asked about Julian Alvarez’s main position and it is safe to say Pep had profiled the Argentine perfectly after he had coached him for just few months.
It is going to be new surroundings, new league and new management for Julian Alvarez this season at Atletico Madrid under Diego Simeone and the Argentine will be looking to be for the first time in Europe, the main man for his team. His skill set screams of a player you can build a team around, he clearly has the potential to be the main man and the move to Atletico Madrid clearly presents an opportunity to actualise this potential.
In an attack that already possesses an influential player like Antoine Griezmann, it will be interesting to see if Alvarez will be able to stamp his authority in games. The odds are obviously more in his favour than at Man City though, and the pressure and weight of expectation are obviously higher as Atletico have splashed around €75 million on him as a marquee signing and would be expecting talismanic performances.
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From a tactical standpoint, it already looks mouthwatering for Simeone with the arrival of Alvarez, his ability to dribble and retain possession in tight spaces alongside his spatial awareness makes him an ideal fit for either the left wing-forward or the right wing-forward position most especially if he is to operate in the half spaces. His great positioning and finishing means he could lead the line as well.
Meanwhile, 28-year old Norwegian target man, Alexander Sorloth who finished as La Liga’s second-top scorer last season with 23 goals also joined Atletico this summer, and this means we would most likely be seeing a front two/ strike partnership of Alvarez-Sorloth with Antoine Griezmann just behind as the 10 in Simeone’s preferred 3-5-2 formation or a front three of Griezmann-Sorloth-Alvarez.
Pertinent to note that the attributes of both Sorloth and Alvarez complement each other very well as the former is more of a traditional number 9 excelling more in box predation while the latter excels more in terms of all-round play. Whatever the case may be, this is a top transfer and Julian Alvarez is already leading the race to become the signing of the summer.
By: Moses Adikwu / @Moe_Adikwu
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Marcelo Endelli / Getty Images