Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has coached a significant number of players throughout his senior managerial career at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and the Citizens.
One man in particular who enjoyed a successful period under the Spaniard’s guidance is Dani Alves.
With 208 appearances to his name under Guardiola, only Lionel Messi (219) played more matches than the full-back during their time at Barcelona. In those appearances, the Brazilian scored 15 goals and delivered 68 assists along the way, highlighting how useful an attacking talent he was for the team.
Now that Guardiola is set to begin his seventh season in charge of Manchester City, the current summer transfer period could give the 51-year-old the chance to sign what could be his next version of Alves.
Last month, it was reported that City have made an enquiry over the availability of Hoffenheim left-back David Raum.
Having scored six goals and supplied 23 assists in 99 senior appearances for his previous employers Greuther Furth, the defender joined his current club last summer.
In his debut campaign at Hoffenheim, the 24-year-old provided 13 assists and scored three times in 35 games. This highlights just how dangerous he has been from the full-back position, just as Alves was for Barcelona under Guardiola.
This also makes it easy to see why the Brazilian has been included on a list of similar players to Raum according to Football Transfers.
Would David Raum be a good signing for City?
Yes
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To further highlight how deadly he can be going forward, no other player at Hoffenheim ended the previous Bundesliga season with a higher average of key passes per game (2.1) or overall performance rating (7.16/10) than the 24-year-old, according to WhoScored.
With all this in mind, it’s easy to see why Hoffenheim sporting director Alexander Rosen described Raum’s debut campaign at the club as “outstanding”. It also makes it understandable why the Premier League champions reportedly asked the German outfit about the defender’s availability this summer.
While a £35m price tag has been suggested, this could be a deal worth completing for City this summer in order to give them even more firepower and supply Guardiola with what could well be his next version of Alves.
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