Manchester City’s successful summer swoop for Ferran Torres can help take Pep Guardiola’s gameplan to another level amid lavish praise from Spain head coach Luis Enrique.
Torres became City’s first signing of the summer when the 20-year-old penned a five-year contract at the start of August after we agreed to pay Valencia €23million (£20.87m) for his services.
The winger was a near-constant of the Valencia line-up last season, amassing 44 outings across all competitions and starting 26 of his 34 La Liga appearances.
His displays not only caught the eye of Guardiola and the Sky Blues’ hierarchy, but also that of Spain boss Enrique, who awarded Torres his senior Spain debut on Friday against Germany in the UEFA Nations League.
Torres played the full 90 minutes at the Mercedes-Benz Arena and left a glowing impression of himself with Enrique later telling the assembled media, via quotes by the Daily Mail: “He was a constant danger to the German defence.
“He is one of the players whose crosses are the best in La Liga. More than crosses, I think he is making [key] passes.”
Will Torres make up for the sale of Sane?
Yes
No
Torres’ crossing ability can help take City to the next level in the new Premier League season, as we have already shown ourselves to be one of the divisions’ best in the category.
No side averaged a higher number of accurate crosses a game in the top-flight last term than we (4.9), with Liverpool and Chelsea (3.1) the joint-next best. That’s also despite the Reds attempting more each game (18.8) to our second-best 18.7, per WhoScored, which would only be expected to increase in 2020/21.
That’s because Torres accounted for 2.7 of Valencia’s 17.8 crosses per each La Liga fixture, while also recording 0.7 key balls, 1.0 shots and 1.6 successful dribbles from 2.8 attempts.
If he can fit into Guardiola’s offensive plans with the same application, there should be little doubt in what Torres will be able to offer alongside Kevin de Bruyne and Sergio Aguero.