Player Focus: Is El Shaarawy The Player To Improve City's Attack?

A summer of change is in effect at Manchester City. The removal of Roberto Mancini and subsequent arrival of Jesús Navas to add some much needed width to an overly narrow Citizens side hints towards a change in system with the imminent arrival of Manuel Pellegrini to navigate the team into the new Premier League season.

With a new man at the helm, the rumour mill is abound with potential arrivals at the Etihad Stadium, with the likes of Isco and Edinson Cavani tipped to follow Navas and Brazilian Fernandinho to Eastlands over the coming months. One further addition being linked with a move to Manchester is highly thought of AC Milan striker Stephan El Shaarawy.

‘Il Farone’ may have endured a disappointing end to the Serie A campaign - the youngster netted just once in 15 games following the arrival of Mario Balotelli, a colossal drop in form after scoring 15 in his first 22 of the season - but the 20-year-old remains one of the most highly rated attacking players on the continent.

With Rossoneri vice president Adriano Galliani fuelling transfer speculation, a move from City has been mooted between now and the beginning of the season as Pellegrini looks to freshen up a team that finished 11 points behind rivals Manchester United in the Premier League.

With Mancini’s favoured formation this season being a 4-4-1-1, a system the club adopted in 20 of their 38 games, the use of David Silva and Samir Nasri - two unconventional wingers - on the flanks often compressed City's midfield. While the pairing were utilised in a similar role in the 2011/12 campaign, each picked up fewer assists this season than they did last - Silva's assist tally dropped from 15 to 8 and Nasri, 9 to 7 - indicates that Premier League opposition have worked out a way to stifle the attacking threat and that refreshing the creative ranks is a necessity.

Strengthening the wings appears to be Pellegrini’s first port of call with the club, given that one of Malaga’s WhoScored.com strengths is the preference to attack down the flanks. With Navas able to provide width on the right wing, El Shaarawy would be expected to do the same on the left, with 29 of the Italian’s 37 Serie A appearances coming as either an attacking left midfielder or a left sided forward under Massimiliano Allegri this season.

Not only would this give City the ability to further stretch opponents, but also allow David Silva to move into a more central position where the diminutive Spaniard can further harness his creative capabilities to full effect, a dangerous proposition considering the 27-year-old played an average of 3.3 key passes per game this season, the highest in Europe’s top five leagues.

With the level of Silva's performances dropping this season - his average rating fell from 7.55 in the 2011/12 season to 7.26 this year - and coinciding with City scoring fewer goals, moving the midfielder into a more central position would benefit the team. The above heatmap reinforces this, with Silva regularly drifting into the centre of pitch last season despite starting almost exclusively out wide, and a change in position could rejuvenate his creating prowess while allowing El Shaarawy to blossom in a fluid attacking triumvirate behind a lone frontman, as per Pellegrini’s use of a 4-2-3-1; Malaga’s most used formation (28 times) this season.

While the Italy international saw his goalscoring record dry up at the tailend of the campaign, only Cavani (29) and Antonio Di Natale (23) scored more goals (16) in Serie A this year, tipping towards a further attacking threat for City. Meanwhile, only the aforementioned pairing fired more shots on target - 70 and 52, respectively - than El Shaarawy (48) this season, the Italy international boasting an impressive on target conversion rate of 33.3%.

When compared to the array of attacking talent on offer at the Etihad Stadium at present, only Edin Dzeko (35%) was more successful in front of goal, while El Shaarawy’s on target conversion is level with that of Sergio Aguero (33.3%). This further reinforces his striking credentials and it’s evidently understandable why City would want to bring a player of his ilk to the Premier League this summer. 

Scoring 14 of his 16 goals from the left flank means that Pellegrini would add a player who offers a differing goalscoring threat to his attack, with El Shaarawy seemingly the perfect player to match the Chilean's 4-2-3-1 that he'll likely utilise. 

Moreover, in scoring nine of his clear-cut goalscoring opportunities, the Italian’s ability to net can hardly be called into question, a tally only bettered by Dzeko (10) of all City players. Yet it’s not only his goal-getting capabilities that would be an asset to the former Premier League champions, with El Shaarawy making the most key passes (56) of any AC Milan player this season, while only Silva (104) and Carlos Tévez (61) played more for City.

Both facets of his game would further strengthen City’s already potent attacking line, and as the above heatmaps highlight, the trio of El Shaarawy, Silva and Navas could work in perfect tandem. As the average positions of each player over the past 12 months shows, both El Shaarawy and Navas would aid in restoring the balance that has been lacking this season for City, with the pairing potentially the perfect duo to slot in either side of Silva.

On top of that, the width that both El Shaarawy and Navas would provide would allow Pellegrini to fully integrate the system he ingrained during his time with Malaga and deliver a stronger threat to the flanks that was, to some degree, missing at the Etihad the past season, further increasing their chances of securing silverware in the upcoming campaign.