If Manchester City supporters are expecting Nico González to be a silver bullet in midfield, they may want to calm their hopes. The 23-year-old Spaniard has arrived from Porto for £50m to help fill the huge hole left by his compatriot Rodri in front of the defence but the former Barcelona man is a very different player. City will need to adapt to him, rather than the other way round, if they are to solve their gaping problem.
Pep Guardiola’s and City’s difficulties have been glaringly apparent since Rodri tore a cruciate ligament in September. They have lacked physicality and mobility in midfield, leaving them to endure a dreadful run, and arguably the best coach of his generation has been unable to find a solution with what was available to him. González’s welcome to England, and the first test of his capabilities and La Masia upbringing, could come at Leyton Orient of League One in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Finding someone to replace the irreplaceable was an impossible task, so City searched for someone who could complement Rodri in the future, while being able to soothe ills rather than eradicate them. González will need someone alongside him, whereas Rodri often coped alone.
González was born in Galicia and moved to Barcelona’s La Masia academy aged 11, aided by having “football in his blood”, according to his former coach Franc Artiga, in reference to his dad, Fran, who was a Spain international alongside Guardiola. “Nico is a very smart player and a very clever boy in general,” says Artiga, who coached González Jr for five years. “He was a good student in school and worked hard on his education. He developed physically late on; before then he needed to rely on his intelligence. He was always asking the coaches a lot of questions about different topics. He wanted to learn from the coaches – it is not normal that you have someone of that age who had such a thirst for knowledge.”
After breaking through at Barcelona, González was unable to become a regular and was loaned to Valencia before being sold to Porto in the summer of 2023, often facing criticism for not being a carbon copy of the ageing Sergio Busquets. Many might have expected the midfielder to thrive in Portugal but a stuttering start almost resulted in him being allowed to leave on a temporary basis after six months. Eventually he found his place in the XI and became a mainstay .
“His progression has been spectacular,” says Artiga. “He has everything you want from a central midfielder: he can play more defensively in a double pivot or in a more offensive position. He always had the ambition to be a more attacking player than where he played at Barcelona. He was never a player who could only play just in the style of the Barcelona academy. When he left Barça, he had to learn about a different style of football that has allowed him to grow as a footballer and is much more complete, becoming someone that plays higher up and can assist and score goals.”
González’s physicality was attractive to City after months of opponents running through them. His 6ft 2in height is another benefit as City seek a way to be more imposing but the former Spain Under-21s international is not someone who necessarily sits. His being schooled at La Masia may have influenced Guardiola and the City hierarchy to spend so much on someone without a full cap, knowing he will be malleable when it comes to taking on his new coach’s ideas.
He has six goals in 24 appearances for Porto this season, an indication of his ambition to get forward. “It’s hard to beat him one-on-one,” says the Arouca midfielder David Simão, who has played against him on three occasions. “He’s a physical guy but also has great technical qualities. He doesn’t play a lot of vertical passes – he’s more likely to go diagonal or to the side. At City he will have the quality to give short passes.
“One of his great qualities is his eye for goal. When he gets into the box, he is a danger in the air. He’s a tall guy for a midfielder and he is great at timing his runs. I faced him a few games when Porto were not in a good moment and he still wanted plenty of the ball. He had the personality to ask for the ball, to take the ball, to try to put Porto on the front foot. He likes to go box-to-box. He’s not as intense in his running as Matheus Nunes but Nico has more technical quality.”
The regular combination of Ilkay Gündogan and Mateo Kovacic has offered little comfort, despite their experience. Nunes is being used at right-back because he has never fully earned Guardiola’s trust, leaving City light on options. Gündogan has failed to repeat the form of his first spell in Manchester, his lack of mobility an obvious flaw, and Kovacic is a regular user of the self-destruct button when trying to take the ball up the pitch. González is a counter-balance of those two issues thanks to his running and ability on the ball but he can also read play to cut out danger and is happy to battle to win possession.
“He can replace Rodri,” says Artiga. “The problem he had before was that he was continually compared to Busquets and players cannot be cloned. Busquets was one, Nico is another and Rodri is another. What is clear is that Nico is one of the best in his position and I think that he can fit in perfectly. The mistake would be to try again to compare him with Rodri because he is a player who can play in his position but with different characteristics from Rodri and he can do it very well for City.”
