Bayern Munich midfielder linked with Manchester City

Pep Guardiola wants to reunite with Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago.

According to The Daily Mail, Guardiola is aiming to sign Thiago for around £50 million in the summer transfer window. He brought Thiago to Bayern Munich from his former side Barcelona in 2013.

The 27-year-old fits the mould of the kind of player Guardiola likes to have at the heart of his teams. His education at La Masia can be clearly seen in his playing style with his intelligence, vision and range of passing being his standout features.

There a variety of rumours over the areas that Guardiola has targeted to improve in his squad for next season. Defensive midfield and the forward areas have been the most common positions believed to need reinforcements. Therefore, Thiago doesn’t fit in the bill in regard to either of those. He is a deep-lying playmaker with a ‘free 8’ being his most likely position at Manchester City. However, he could still fill an important role.

Bringing in Thiago would allow Guardiola to rotate Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva effectively. Bernardo Silva has filled that role at times, but seems to perform better as a wide playmaker on the right-wing. Having another option in central midfield could cause Ilkay Gundogan to shift into being direct competition for Fernandinho.

This would give more depth to that position, but there are still issues that would need to be solved. Gundogan isn’t the most reliable due to injuries and they don’t have a long-term solution for that role currently.

This doesn’t reduce the likelihood of Thiago joining, though, because he would fit into City perfectly. Similar to Gundogan, his main issues are injuries which have limited his playing time at Bayern Munich.

His role

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Man City aren’t exactly short of experience or proven winners, but Thiago would significantly add to that. He has won all the trophies available to him at the domestic level with the Champions League the most important, in regards to City.

Currently, the Citizens only have David Silva who is realistically able to control the tempo of matches against the top sides in Europe. De Bruyne is supremely talented, but this is an area he needs to work on. Thiago would help notably in this regard, which is vital for City. Their style requires players such as him who have ‘La Pausa’ (the ability to halt progression in order to wait for better options to open up).

Xavi, Andreas Iniesta and Sergio Busquets were all talented at doing this during Guardiola’s time at Barca while Thiago was the key exponent of this ability at Bayern. Without this, possession based teams can become unstuck because they try to force the issue with the options available rather than waiting for a better alternative. In some regards, City have been guilty of this in all three of their last matches with Liverpool across all competitions.

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He wouldn’t have the best numbers in terms of goals and assists, although he would still contribute in that regard. However, he would act as a key cog linking together the entire team with build-up and progression being his areas. His role is vital in Guardiola’s teams and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him move in the summer. Niko Kovac might alter his approach when he becomes Bayern manager, but his time at Eintracht Frankfurt suggests that Thiago isn’t an ideal player for his style of play.

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