Manchester City are signing a brilliant ball-playing defender in Josko Gvardiol – but he is also seriously impressive when it comes to dribbling
City have finally reached an agreement with RB Leipzig for the Croatia international’s transfer.
After weeks of talks, City are now finally set to sign the 21-year-old and further bolster their defensive pool of options.
It is expected that Gvardiol will complete his move in the coming days.
It remains to be seen whether he will sign in time to have any involvement in the Community Shield on Sunday.
His signing is a serious statement from the Treble winners.
Gvardiol’s potential is scary.
The main thing with him is that he is a solid defender, who can also pass the ball brilliantly through the lines.
Essentially, he is like a cross between Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte.
But a statistic has emerged about Gvardiol that suggests we could be seeing some truly fantastic plays from him in a City shirt.
Man City-bound Josko Gvardiol is seriously good at dribbling
City fans are looking forward to watching Gvardiol get the ball and pick out the likes of Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish.
But Gvardiol doesn’t just pass the ball successfully to get up the field.
He’s also a superb dribbler.
According to WhoScored, no player had a better dribble success rate than Gvardiol (88.9%) in the Bundesliga last season (at least 15 dribbles made).
That’s players in any position, not just defenders.
So it is more than likely that Gvardiol will be carrying the ball past players and into midfield.
Gvardiol dribbling stat is crazy
City are signing a monster – pure and simple.
Gvardiol is not just going to beef up an already impermeable backline. He is also going to construct attacks.
Whether that’s via his passing range or ball-carrying ability, the youngster is clearly far more than just a centre-half.
It is not normal for central defenders to have such a high success rate when it comes to dribbling.
Most of the time, centre-halves are tall, clunky and not that athletic or mobile.
But Gvardiol ‘only’ being 6ft 1in allows him to manoeuvre much better than most other players in his position.
