Analysis: Gvardiol ideal for Man City, Maddison what Spurs have missed
The arrival of Gvardiol is an example of a perfectly thought-out transfer. With his immense versatility and unique set of skills, he can play in several positions in Manchester City's 3-2-3-2 formation.
In it, a trio of centre-backs operate in defence when in possession, behind a defensive midfielder and a defender who moves forward to form a double pivot, usually John Stones. Although Guardiola is best suited to the position of left centre-back, he is also capable of deputising in the middle for Ruben Dias and can even handle Stones' more attacking role.
So, not only does the Croatian solve the problem of the lack of depth in the team in the absence of Nathan Ake, but he also brings additional tactical options to the team.
He comes with a reputation as one of the most creative centre-backs in the world. During his Bundesliga career, he has, along with Bayer Leverkusen's Edmond Tapsoba, topped an advanced data metric that assesses the extent to which a player's passing moves the ball into more advantageous positions and thus increases his team's chances of scoring.
He has a high success rate with passes of 30 metres or more, which he has used to create many dangerous scoring opportunities, whether it be through passes on the ground, crosses into or near the opponent's penalty area, or passes into an area where his teammate can then play a pass into the box.
If he sees open space in front of him, he can also create opportunities by carrying the ball towards the final third of the pitch thanks to his good control and speed. However, he excels much more with his passing.
Of course, he's also very good defensively. The data models show he can win a high volume of balls in important spaces and, thanks to his good reading of the game, he rarely makes a foul. How much defensive potential he has is underlined by the statistics of errors made that lead directly to goals. In almost 5,000 Bundesliga minutes played, he has not made a single one.
Although he still has a lot of room for physical development due to his young age, he maintains an above-average success rate in ground duels. His most obvious weakness is his aerial game, but even that is average rather than being a major issue.
What does Maddison excel at?
Tottenham enter the new season with visions of attractive, attacking football under new manager Ange Postecoglou. He wants to transform the London team into an intense and effective possession-based pressing team.
He is one of many current coaches who uses the popular trend of full-backs inverting into midfield, and since the wingers thus hug the touchline, the job of the central midfielders is to move high and operate between the lines. There, they then form triangles with the wingers and full-backs so that they can create overloads and generate a large number of chances.
This new system should also suit Maddison, the new signing from relegated Leicester. At 26 years old, the England international has already managed to play a hefty 13,256 minutes in the Premier League, during which he has built a reputation as one of its most creative players, and that is exactly the kind of footballer Spurs have lacked since Christian Eriksen.
Key to assessing his skills are the results in the advanced data metric assessing how often and how well a player's passes move the ball into dangerous shooting positions last season. Despite playing for one of the Premier League's worst sides, Maddison - who often was played out wide - performed best compared to other wingers.
If we expand our comparison to include all positions, then only four other players were ahead of him - Bruno Fernandes, Martin Odegaard, Enzo Fernandez and Kevin De Bruyne. In the final third, Maddison matched all of the above.
He created the most valuable chances with perpendicular passes from central areas in close proximity to the opposition's penalty area, and his good movement often allowed him to get into positions to receive return passes inside the box. The central spaces of the pitch are where he shines the most.
In the expected assists metric, which assesses the quality of the final pass, he ranked in the 90th percentile last season, in the top 10% of players.
And because Maddison is often in close proximity to Harry Kane in Postecoglou's system, the upcoming season is set to be a goalscoring one for him too. This is mainly due to his fantastic technique. During his career, he has amassed 34.69 expected goals and has hit the target on 43 occasions, 17 of them from outside the area. He also maintains an average of 2.6 shots per game and we can expect this number to be similar or higher in the upcoming season.
If he stays healthy, he will be one of the biggest threats for his new side.
