Pep identifies “world class” star as Man City’s dream De Bruyne replacement

The Manchester City squad rebuild is firmly underway.

Last week, Kevin De Bruyne confirmed he will be leaving the club this summer, following the expiration of his contract.

He’ll follow fellow sky blue stalwart Kyle Walker out the exit door while, as outlined by Philip Buckingham of the Athletic, Man City spent around £180m in January. That’s more than the other 19 Premier League clubs combined, recruiting Abdukodir Khusanov, Omar Marmoush, Nico González, Vitor Reis, and Juma Bah.

Now, as Pep Guardiola attempts to fill the gigantic void that De Bruyne will leave behind, does he have his eyes on one of the Premier League’s very best midfielders?

The latest on Man City interest in PL star

According to UOL Esporte, via a report from Spain, Guardiola ‘has identified’ Newcastle United’s Bruno Guimarães as his ‘ideal candidate’ to replace De Bruyne this summer.

The Belgian is on his way out of The Etihad and the Cityzens have now set their sights on the Premier League midfielder to bolster their options in the middle of the park ahead of next season.

However, it remains to be seen how much money it will take for the Magpies to consider parting ways with their brilliant Brazilian in the upcoming transfer window.

The 27-year-old joined Newcastle back in January 2022 from Olympique Lyonnais for a reported £40m, making 146 appearances for the Magpies to date, scoring 20 goals, a key figure in the side that won last month’s EFL Cup, the first major domestic trophy the club have hoisted aloft for 70 years.

His manager Eddie Howe described Guimarães as “world class”, with Chris Waugh of the Athletic believing that, when the Brazilian is deployed with more attacking freedom, there’s few better in the Premier League.

Thus, his signing would obviously be a major coup for Man City, but any potential deal will be far from straight-forward.

Why Guimares would be the perfect de Bruyne replacement

Instinctively, it does not feel as though Guimarães would be the perfect stylistic fit to replace De Bruyne.

The Belgian is known as the pass master, with Sam Lee of the Athletic outlining that a whipped ball to the back post is very much his ‘trademark’ assist.

As noted by Opta, since De Bruyne’s debut for Manchester City, no player has registered more assists (117) or created more chances (827) than him across Europe’s top five leagues.

Meantime, Guimarães is more well known for his ‘tenacity’ and leadership qualities, as documented by Jack Lang and Maurício Alencar of the Athletic, registering just 24 assists in 146 appearances for Newcastle to date.

But, let’s now take a deeper dive into the numbers.

As the table outlines, despite having played less than half the number of minutes that Guimarães has, De Bruyne’s assists, expected assists, and chances created numbers are still comparable, emphasizing his qualities in that regard.

Nevertheless, the Brazilian has registered more progressive passes, shot-creating actions, and through-balls, while accumulating exponentially more ball recoveries, underlining that he is more of a useful asset out of possession.

This suggests that he would be a perfect replacement for de Bruyne in the sense that he could arrive with more depth to his game, due to his qualities out of possession and in deep build-up, which means that he could offer more to the all-round team performance than the Belgian veteran.

Thus, even though this would not be a like-for-like replacement, Guimarães would surely slot into Man City’s team perfectly, making this a transfer they should absolutely complete, if at all possible.