“He decided” – Pep Guardiola admits Julian Alvarez would have been crucial to Manchester City this season | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that former striker Julian Alvarez would have had a big role to play for the club this season.

The FIFA World Cup winner with Argentina opted to bring an end to his time with the reigning Premier League champions during the last summer transfer window in search of greater responsibilities in the striker role.

Having often played second-fiddle to Erling Haaland when it came to City’s lone number nine position, but seeing enormous goalscoring success elsewhere in Pep Guardiola’s system, Alvarez decided that after two years and plenty of silverware, a move away was needed.

As such, the Premier League giants alongside work from the striker’s representatives managed to secure the player a move to the Spanish capital, where he is now going from strength to strength under Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid.

Speaking during a recent press conference, Pep Guardiola admitted his belief that he had no part to play in Julian Alvarez’s move away from the club last summer, insisting that the Argentine had already made up his mind long before discussions took place.

“I don’t feel responsible for Julian’s departure,” Guardiola told reporters this week. “Julián had already made up his mind to leave Manchester City; he wanted to play all the minutes he’s getting now, which he didn’t have.”

Guardiola continued, “He decided to sign with Atlético Madrid, and we’re very happy he’s doing so well with playing time, goals, presence. He helped us a lot to achieve something unique, and seeing good people like him succeed makes us very happy. In life, this happens.”

While Pep Guardiola is keen to show happiness for the ongoing successes of Alvarez in Madrid, he does believe that given the struggles and injury problems endured by Manchester City throughout the most-part of this season so far.

The 54-year-old said, “He wanted more ‘protagonism’, which with (Erling) Haaland sometimes was hard to come by. This year, with the injuries we’ve had, he would’ve played a lot more. But he’s happy, and that’s most important.”

Following Julian Alvarez’s exit, Erling Haaland has taken on even more goalscoring responsibility in a Manchester City shirt, and finds himself by far and away the club’s leading provider in that department at this stage of the ongoing season.

Etihad Stadium officials did move swiftly during the January transfer window to bring in a new attacking face to compliment Haaland in the forward line, as Omar Marmoush completed a €75 million switch from Eintracht Frankfurt to the Etihad Stadium.