Jamie (@ScoutedEN)
We all know Pep Guardiola loves to bring Spaniards to his clubs. Pepe Reina, Thiago and Bernat were all brought into Bayern Munich. But Manu Garcia, the young Spaniard, was developing at Manchester City before the mastermind was even rumoured to be taking the reins at the club. I first watched Manu in the FA Youth Cup. I was amazed. He ran the show from midfield with what seemed like no effort.
He can operate anywhere in midfield. When I first watched him, he was playing as a 10 behind Thierry Ambrose and Kelechi Iheanacho. In the Semi Final he played Centre Mid as a deep lying playmaker, dictating tempo and recycling possession like a professional. In the cup final he came off the bench and played on the wing replacing Brandon Barker. It’s very rare to see a 17/18-year-old who’s so comfortable with versatility while still keeping performance levels at a high standard. It was clear that at this time he was under David SIlva’s wing as the kid couldn’t do one positive thing in midfield without being likened to the maestro.
Left foot. Right foot. Short pass. Long distance. Diagonal and breaking the lines. I can’t stress enough how talented the kid is to do all of this from multiple places on the pitch. Even world class centre midfielders struggle to perform properly out wide. This video is almost 2 years old and even back then he arguably looks like he could fit comfortably into a championship level team.
But sadly, he’s struggled to get in and around the Manchester City first team because of obvious reasons. He was loaned out to Deportivo Alaves in his native country of Spain where he really struggled to get into the team and only managed to make a substitute appearance in a dead game. City then cut his loan short and quickly found him a loan deal to NAC Breda to play alongside loads of fellow City loanees in a side that seem to be the equivalent of what Vitesse is to Chelsea. It looked like a good move for his development. The past couple games he has been played out on the left wing behind Thierry Ambrose; just like the old days in the academy.
But while developing on loan it’s become apparent that he has been left behind by other talents in the City side like Phil Foden and Aleix Garcia. On twitter, while highlighting his decent performance for Breda during an 8-0 battering by an Ajax side full of wonderkids, I was weirdly thanked by Manu’s father for the kind words. He joked that the 8-0 game his son is losing, like life, is a long-distance race full of hardships. I recommended that he and his son get out of Manchester City as soon as possible as his contract is running out in May 2018, and a long-term deal filled with false promises will only ruin his career.
I wish all the best to this talented midfielder. I hope he finds himself a decent level club to sign him permanently so he can develop into the top professional he deserves to be, because sadly I can’t see Manchester City giving him adequate gametime. Manu Garcia truly could be the unwanted wonder.
Tacticomotion 