[Observation] The difficulty of finding a new core in reconstruction can Manchester City get it done in two or three times?

Sports Weekly All-Media Reporter Yan Yu

Reconstruction is a very complicated issue, especially for a "dynasty team" like Manchester City. Just say that De Bruyne is old and gone, what should Manchester City do? The master-level frontcourt core is not so easy to find a replacement. Many fans were also a little confused for this reason, especially after discovering that the "most suitable candidate" Wilz prefers to join Liverpool. However, as the saying goes, "There is another village when the willows are dark and the flowers are bright." The fans of Blue Moon were so anxious that they are now. Just 10 days later in June, Manchester City spent money to officially settle three major signings, with a total expenditure of more than 120 million euros. This should be considered very generous, but it seems to be very smart.

Ait Nuri, Sherki, and Reindez were officially announced three times in three days. Guardiola's team can be said to have completed important updates to the three positions in one breath (of course, there is also the relatively less important goalkeeper of the third place to sign Betinelli). Among them, left-back Nuri is probably the least needed to adapt. After all, he comes from Wolves and has 5 seasons of Premier League experience. As the defender who has regained the most ball rights in the frontcourt in the 2024-25 season, and the "knife guard" who contributed 4 goals and 7 assists in the league, the 24-year-old Algerian seems to be able to meet Guardiola's requirements on both offense and defense, and can also change the previous situation where Manchester City always lets the centre-back (Gvadior) or midfielder (O'Reilly) kick the left gate.

Dutch Reindes has the highest transfer fee, with a fixed amount of 55 million euros and a floating bonus of 15 million euros. He looks like a perfect replacement for Gundogan. Although it still needs to be polished again, the 26-year-old former AC Milan midfielder is indeed the kind of midfielder who can play both front and back midfielders, and can provide Manchester City midfielder with a long-lost vitality and motivation. "Baisuishan" will become history, and the acceleration may start from Reindez.

As for Serky, he is the cheapest, "the least important", judging from the transfer value, but the 21-year-old Frenchman is actually the most surprising. Why? As mentioned earlier, Manchester City cannot grab Wilz, who is worth hundreds of millions, once made the problem of "finding De Bruyne's successor" a bit difficult to solve. But as soon as he turned around, Blue Moon won the French newcomer who was no less than the German ace for 36 million euros (another Euro 6 million floating and 15% second transfer commission), far less than 1/3 of the price of Werz. Even Red Army fans were slapping their thighs in this deal: Why don’t we pick up this cheap? !

In fact, Liverpool did have contacted Serky, and there were even reports that it was an interview conducted by coach Slot, but the Reds seemed to only regard the French as a Plan B and did not actively strive for it. So does this mean that Sherky is actually far inferior to Wilz? After all, the two are very different in value, and the algorithms of Liverpool's behind-the-scenes team are often very accurate, and successful precedents such as Salah and Mane are proof of this.

However, it should be noted that Serky is cheap because he only has one year left in his original contract, and Lyon is eager to cash in on the players to fill the fiscal vacancy because he failed to enter the Champions League this year. As for which is better, Serky or Werz, there is a very intuitive display recently. France 4-5 in the European League semi-finals. Although the Gaul Rooster was beaten by the Bullfighters an hour ago, Serky's substitute came on the bench but a wave of counterattack frenzy was set off. The young man made three goals in a row, and two passes and one shot almost knocked Spain off the horse. In the subsequent third place competition, the starter Serky also won the "direct dialogue" with Werz, and France defeated Germany 2-0.

With this "demo", Manchester City fans should have increased their confidence a lot. Who said that if you can't do something big if you have tens of millions of dollars? But seeking truth from facts, the surprise at the UEFA Nations League does not mean that Serky is definitely better than Werz, nor does it mean that he will definitely succeed Bruyne. In fact, the French boy's current main role is still the right winger, and playing as a front midfielder is a "side job". Because of this, many British media listed names when comparing the old Blue Moon player with this new player are Doku, Savigno and Forden.

Considering that Grelish may choose to leave the team this summer, Serky's introduction may not be that important? And theoretically Reindez can also play as a midfielder. However, even if it is just a competitive position on the wing, Serky is expected to bring considerable improvement to Blue Moon. In the past season, both Savigno and Doku have the feeling that they can't rain without thunder, and former Premier League Mr. Foden has been completely depressed. Sherki is more efficient than them. He has 8 goals and 11 assists in Ligue 1 in the past season, and 4 goals and 8 assists in the Europa League, of which 11 assists are tied for the highest in Ligue 1, and 8 assists are the first in the Europa League, with at least 3 more times than other players.

If you look at some more detailed data, you will find that the young Serky is already known as the "king of opportunity creation". He created a total of 125 opportunities throughout the 2024-25 season, with only 158 B-fee times and 152 Rafina among the top five European league players. If only counting the sports war statistics, it is only lower than B Fee (120), Rafinia (105) and Salah (104) 100 times, but note that these players with a total of more than him have played at least 50 games, while Serki only has 44 games. In this way, if calculated based on the data per 90 minutes, no one in the five major leagues can match it. In addition, according to data from the competitive network, Serky's "average expected assist value per game" in the past season reached 0.49, which is also the first in the five major leagues.

According to Opta's statistics, the "right winger" Serky's range of movement is actually very large. After dividing the frontcourt into 15 areas, you will find that he touches the ball most frequently near the center line on the right, accounting for 9%, but he can also have 7% in the center and left position in the front of the penalty area. This shows that Serky is not bound to the role of the wing. He will freely shuttle on the court and have the potential to become a top attacking midfielder.. In addition, the data also shows that he is good at delivering passes through the defense line forward, and has strong dribbling ability. He averages 1.6 breakthroughs per game, ranking in the top 10 of Ligue 1, and averages up to 2.8 times in the Europa League.

With these things as a foundation, will Serky be ineligible to take over Bhand Bruyne? I'm afraid everyone is willing to let him try it.