Manchester City have made Savio their first signing of the summer transfer window but how will Pep Guardiola utilise him in the team?
It’s been a quiet start to the summer but Manchester City finally completed their first signing with the confirmation that Savio has joined the club from sister side Troyes.
The Brazilian has put pen to paper on a five-year deal and City have paid an initial £21m, rising to a potential £33.6m, according to the MEN’s Simon Bajkowski.
Savio was sensational on loan at Girona last season, with his 10 goals and 11 assists firing the unfancied side to a Champions League finish in La Liga.
It’s believed the 20-year-old will be staying with City this season rather than heading straight back out on loan.
But how could Pep Guardiola best utilise his new signing? Here are three possible ways.
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On the left flank
Savio is a rarity in today’s game in that he’s a left-footed winger who actually plays on the left.
Recent years have seen the rise of the inverted winger and though Guardiola does tend to favour it with the likes of Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku on the left and Phil Foden on the right, he has been known to play wingers on their natural sides, too.
Foden, who has also often played on the left, is the most obvious example but Bernardo Silva regularly plays on the right as well.
The downside of Foden on the left, though, is that he loves to cut inside to shoot and should be playing centrally anyway.
With Savio, Guardiola will have the option of playing a left-footer on the left without wasting Foden’s best talents.
The Brazilian starlet also offers a different profile, as he is a fast and skilful winger who loves to blast past full-backs and get dangerous balls into the box. Erling Haaland wouldn’t mind a bit of that.
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On the right wing
Yet, the inverted option is always useful and how Guardiola tends to set up against teams he knows City will dominate against.
The manager’s only option for that role on the right at present is Foden, who played the bulk of his games last season there.
But with the ageing Kevin De Bruyne’s future uncertain amid strong interest from Saudi Arabia, the ‘Stockport Iniesta’ may soon have a permanent home in the middle of the park, leaving his job on the right vacant.
This could be Savio’s way into the side. Though he’s mostly played on the left in his short career he has been versatile enough to play anywhere in attack and does have experience on the right.
With his abundance of raw qualities, Guardiola should have no trouble in moulding him for the position.
Super sub
It does appear that Savio will follow in fellow South American Julian Alvarez’s footsteps in joining straight up with Guardiola’s squad but it might take a little time before he’s as much as a regular in the starting XI.
But that doesn’t mean Savio can’t be extremely useful. A player with his lightning speed and proven clinical edge in the final third could be the perfect game-changer from the bench.
Though usually imperious, there have been many games over the years where City have looked stagnant as they’ve struggled to break stubborn teams down.
A player of Savio’s spontaneity and verve could be the perfect super sub to spark those dreary displays into life.
