Since coaching Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has always brought surprises during his coaching period. Especially regarding his astuteness in organizing strategies and placing players in team formations. One of the surprises presented by Guardiola was by trying his players in new positions or out of their original positions.
Last season, Guardiola played John Stones in the defensive midfielder position alongside Rodri. Stones originally played as a center back, but in the second half of the 2022/23 season, Guardiola played him in a defensive midfielder position. The experiment was a success. Stones’ change in position made Man City’s game more solid, and even helped Man City win the treble last season.
From a statistical perspective, Stones is considered to be one of the players who has held the ball for a long time and is key to Man City’s ball flow. In fact, the England national team player did not hesitate to accompany the ball into the opponent’s front area.
This season, Stones has often been hampered by injuries. Guardiola, who saw the success of his strategy last season, tried to place several players in the positions left by Stones.
Starting from M. Nunez, R. Kovavic, and B. Silva to accompany Rodri in the anchor midfielder sector. However, injury problems struck Nunez and Kovacvic so that efforts to replace Stones’ role did not go smoothly. Meanwhile, Silva is more effective when played as a striker on the right rather than as an anchor midfielder.
As a result, Guardiola instead chose players from the defender sector. Guardiola’s choice is a player whose full name is Manuel Obafemi Akanji. Guardiola’s choice is reasonable. The first reason stems from Guardiola’s success in playing Stones as an anchor midfielder to accompany Rodri last season.
The second reason is the similarity of character and background between the two players. Akanji has the exact same character and background as the Stones. Akanji, who was bought from Borussio Dortmund in 2018, also has the ability to play the ball with his feet.
Also, another advantage is that Akanji can turn into a defender when the opponent has the ball. However, when Man City held the ball, Akanji formed as an anchor midfielder accompanying Rodri.
In short, Akanji reprises Stones’ old role. When an opponent attacks, Akanji will be in a four-back formation. However, when the team has the ball, Akanji can be one of the ball-controlling midfielders in the midfield.
Akanji’s promotion to the anchor midfielder position also broadens the role of the players in the back line. At the very least, Man City, which is equipped with several quality defenders, can rotate smoothly and thus have lots of playing hours.
So far, Akanji has played his role as an anchor midfielder convincingly. Stones’ role seems to be well covered by the player who was born on July 19 1995. Akanji’s performance when Man City drew 1-1 against Liverpool was one of Akanji’s best games this season. Accompanying Rodri in midfield, Akanji played quite solidly and was able to calm Liverpool’s midfielders.
Akanji’s position seems to be Guardiola’s new discovery this season. This Swiss national team player inevitably had to accept the challenge from his coach to play in the defensive midfielder sector.
After the match against Liverpool last weekend in the Premier League, Akanji commented that Guardiola trusted him to play in the defensive midfield position. In fact, Akanji is open to playing in different positions in the future.
With this, Akanji is comfortable playing in his new position. This provides its own advantages for Man City. Furthermore, Akanji is not only great on the green field. The player, who has Nigerian blood from his father, is also smart in mathematics.
His abilities were even demonstrated on a TV station in Switzerland. In fact, Akanji showed his abilities by solving math problems in seconds. His prowess in mathematical matters is translated into Akanji’s new role in midfield. The 28 year old player believes that when he is a defender, he only plays from behind. However, as an anchor midfielder, Akanji must see the entire team’s play.
With this, Akanji seems to need to utilize his ability to calculate every move and decision as an anchor midfielder. We will see until the end of the season how we can contribute to Manchester City and Guardiola’s team.
ASL
