How Ilkay Gundogan fits back in at Man City after securing Pep Guardiola reunion

Looking back at Pep Guardiola’s comments on Ilkay Gundogan’s Manchester City departure last summer, it’s easy to see why a deal to bring the 33-year-old midfielder back to the Premier League champions came together so quickly after he decided to leave Barcelona.

“What could I say – it was an incredible seven years together,” Guardiola said. “I don’t have the words to describe my gratitude to him. I wish him all the best in the challenge of his life.

“Barcelona have bought an incredible player, but this is life. Everyone has family challenges.

“We tried to convince him to stay, but we could not.”

Guardiola might not have been able to talk the German playmaker into staying, but just a year after leaving, the Manchester City boss has convinced him to return to the Etihad.

The Catalan tactician is obviously a huge admirer of the player who captained his side to a Treble in 2023. And even as he reaches his mid-30s and is coming off an underwhelming season in La Liga, Gundogan still has plenty to offer the reigning Premier League champions.

Binding agent

The fact Gundogan has left Barcelona a little over a year after joining the Spanish giants suggests he did not enjoy the most fruitful season in La Liga in 2023-24. Barca finished a distant second in the league, 10 points behind arch-rivals Real Madrid.

But the former Borussia Dortmund man was still remarkably productive given the negative narrative around his sole season in Spain. He scored five La Liga goals and provided a career-best nine league assists. He will turn 34 in October and City fans will not need to be reminded of his extensive injury history, but Gundogan is no busted flush.

And at City previously, Gundogan excelled as a No.8 who connected midfield and attack with an unmatched smoothness. Those skills remain intact.

He ranked in the 99th percentile among La Liga midfielders last term for expected goals assisted per 90 minutes, with 0.31. And he fared in the 97th percentile for shot-creating actions per 90, with an impressive 4.99, while also ranking in the 88th percentile for progressive passes per 90, with 6.73.

Mateo Kovacic, who arrived from Chelsea last summer to fill the Gundogan-shaped hole in City’s middle third, was less effective. He averaged 0.09 expected goals assisted per 90, 3.13 shot-creating actions and 5.8 progressive passes.

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Valuable versatility

One of Gundogan’s key strengths throughout his initial City career was his ability to thrive in a number of roles within Guardiola’s midfield.

The 82-cap Germany star often featured as a deep-lying playmaker is his early years with the club, operating in a Rodri-esque conductor’s role at the base of midfield.

He’d made his name with Dortmund as a dynamic box-to-box midfielder along Jurgen Klopp’s side’s run to the Champions League final in 2013, providing thrust, athleticism and incisive passing to drive his team through the thirds of the pitch. And this was a role he reprised at times with City.

And more recently, he shone in the aforementioned role of an advanced No.8, an elite-level connector who could unpick the most rigid backlines and, when the time called – such as with his brace against Manchester United in the 2023 FA Cup final or throughout the 2020-21 season when he returned a career-high 17 goals – he knew how to find the net.

Ready to go

Guardiola’s hyper-detailed footballing philosophy and intensely prescribed, demanding tactical approach can often mean it takes new arrivals at City a season or more to truly find their feet and thrive under the former Barcelona and Bayern manager’s rule. Some never quite get there.

Jack Grealish was a prime example. The England winger was signed from Aston Villa for a British-record £100 million in 2021.

Arriving as a freewheeling, maverick creator who’d previously enjoyed the freedom of Villa Park, it took him a season to adapt to the structure and strictures at City. But after a par-worthy first campaign in Manchester, Grealish was an essential part of Guardiola’s Treble-winning side in his second season.

Last term, we saw £53 million signing Matheus Nunes struggle to make an impact at the Etihad after joining from Wolves late in the transfer window. The Portuguese will be hoping to put forward a greater exhibition of his undoubted qualities this season.

And although injuries were admittedly a complicating factor in his case, the moment of total assimilation never came for Kalvin Phillips. The England midfielder has made just 16 Premier League appearances for City since his £42 million move from Leeds United in 2022. He will spend this season on loan with newly promoted Ipswich Town after a brief and unfruitful loan spell with West Ham over the second half of the 2023-24 campaign.

Having already spent seven years under Guardiola’s tutelage and having won everything there is to win in his first stint with City, there is no such concern over Gundogan.

The former City captain is returning to familiar territory in east Manchester, to work with a group of players to whom he is not only accustomed but from whom he has already earned respect due to his time skippering them to relentless success.

The £82 million sale of Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid this summer has left City a little light in the attacking department, with no obvious stand-in for star striker Erling Haaland.

Gundogan’s return doesn’t remedy that issue. But regardless of whether Guardiola sought to make a single other signing this season, City were always going to waltz into the 2024-25 campaign as hot favourites for every competition they enter.

Gundogan’s homecoming serves only to rubberstamp that status.