German international Ilkay Gundogan has enjoyed his start to the season with Premier League champions Manchester City.

The midfielder started in City’s first three games of the season and also made a substitute appearances against Newcastle United in his side’s fourth fixture of the campaign.

Gundogan is a star man who thrives playing in the midfield engine room, so far in his 263 minutes of English top flight football this term Ilkay has managed a superb 92.6% passing success rate. Only the defensive trio of Vincent Kompany, John Stones and Aymeric Laporte have bettered Ilkay on that passing stat.

The ability to keep the ball moving and pass efficiently is essential to Pep Guardiola’s teams and it’s no different at Man City and that’s why the Spanish manager trusts the German pass master. The central midfielder also managed to provide assist for centre back Laporte in City’s 1-1 draw with Wolves.

He’s also a very intelligent footballer and is capable of sitting back when required to help out holding midfielder Fernandinho. Even when playing in a deeper role, Ilkay can still be creative as he possesses terrific vision to make the right pass.

The former Borussia Dortmund star suffered from a knee ligament injury in his debut season at the Eithad and that curtailed in maiden campaign. But the twenty-seven year old was back last term as Man City claimed the league crown, with Gundogan playing in forty-eight games in all competitions and scoring six goals.

During the summer, Pep missed out on his main transfer target in Jorginho who would end up at Chelsea. That disappointment may have been a blessing in disguise for the German midfielder who seems to be the middle-man that can make things tick and provide industrious effort when getting around the field.

Earlier in the year Pep heaped praise on his midfielder after a Champions League victory:

‘Gundogan is an extraordinary player.’

‘Last season we missed him a lot for the six months he was out with an injury.’

‘That’s why we’re so satisfied for the performance – not just for the goals for the quality he has, for the personality to play. He played fantastic.’

With all that in mind, plus with reported interest from FC Barcelona, Guardiola and Manchester City should look at quickly tying down Ilkay Gundogan to a new long term deal.

With only two years remaining on his current contract it would seem extremely silly not to keep Gundogan around for what should be his prime years and Man City are usually extremely smart when it comes to keeping prized assets at the club!

 

Posted on September 13th, 2018 by scott
Filed under: Article