Gianluigi Donnarumma: Man City told what to pay for Ruben Amorim's top target
The French giants have made it abundantly clear: the Italian can leave.
Lucas Chevalier has already arrived to take over as Luis Enrique's new number one, signalling a clear shift in the goalkeeping hierarchy.
While Donnarumma may have hoped to remain at the Parc des Princes and deputise the new arrival, that option is off the table.
Enrique's decision to leave him out of the UEFA Super Cup squad to face Tottenham Hotspur makes it painfully obvious his time in Paris is up.
Premier League links intensify
Donnarumma has been heavily linked with a move to England.
Chelsea have quietly distanced themselves from the deal, suggesting they are not keen on his services.
Manchester United, however, continue to be strongly linked with the 26-year-old.
Over the weekend, reports claimed Donnarumma was open to a switch to Old Trafford.
By Monday, fresh claims suggested United needed to offload players before finalising a move.
Then on Tuesday, The Peoples Person reported that the Red Devils were now leading the race for his signature.
City enters the frame
Just as United's pursuit began to gather momentum, Manchester City are forcing their way into the picture.
According to Fabrizio Romano, City have now made contact for the 6'5″ shot-stopper, adding one more rival to the chase.
For United, the silver lining is that City would need to move on Ederson before making a concrete move, and Donnarumma has yet to give them the green light.
Asking price now a major obstacle
Despite the interest, INEOS may struggle to strike a deal.
PSG are demanding €50 million (£43 million) for Donnarumma, a figure that is double what many expected.
Factor in his hefty wages and lingering doubts about his form, and the deal becomes increasingly difficult to justify.
Unless PSG lower their valuation and Donnarumma agrees to a massive pay cut, it is hard to see INEOS pressing ahead with the transfer.
They may opt for Senne Lammens, another brilliant goalie, heavily linked with an Old Trafford switch.
Feature image Buda Mendes via Getty Images
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New York Times
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- New York Times
How Chelsea play: Building from the goalkeeper, a box-shaped midfield and lots of short corners
Many outside the club might only admit it grudgingly, but Chelsea's extraordinarily well-funded project under Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly has finally achieved football legitimacy. That much was clear in May, when Chelsea secured a return to the Champions League with a fourth-place finish in the Premier League before lifting the UEFA Conference League. Advertisement 'For me, the biggest achievement this season is that exactly one year ago, no one was talking about Chelsea for football (reasons), but talking about the big squad, big money,' head coach Enzo Maresca said in a press conference before the FIFA Club World Cup final. 'Now, no one is talking about this, but they are talking about the way we play, and the way we win games. This is personally the biggest achievement of this season.' The fact that Maresca's young team then comprehensively beat newly-crowned Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium to win the tournament only served to underline his point. Chelsea are a serious side again, but how exactly do they play? Let's talk about it. Maresca's appointment in the summer of 2024 was a clear signal of the football direction the club wanted to take: a shift towards the Pep Guardiola school of possession-focused, positional play, implemented by a man who, like Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, served as Guardiola's assistant at Manchester City. Equally as clear was Maresca's specific interpretation of the Guardiola style: a 4-2-3-1 system that shifts to become more of a 3-4-3 in possession, with the 'four' arranged in a box shape consisting of two defensive midfielders — one of which is typically an inverted full-back — and two attacking midfielders operating in the half-spaces, or 'pockets'. Maresca's box midfield can be seen below, during last season's home meeting with Arsenal… This structure, which grants a measure of balance by enabling the team to attack with five players while the other five remain behind the ball to protect against counter-attacks, tends to be Chelsea's default alignment. But throughout last season, Maresca demonstrated that he is flexible when it comes to how he gets to it. Sometimes it was left-back Marc Cucurella inverting into the base of midfield, sometimes it was right-back Malo Gusto moving in from the right. Sometimes one or the other would instead push up into one of the attacking midfield roles, with two natural defensive midfielders behind them. Advertisement Cucurella is also integral to Maresca's preferred tactical plan B: a more attacking alignment in which the inverted full-back pushes all the way up into the final third to enable Chelsea to attack with six players rather than five, keeping just one defensive midfielder to screen the back three. This tactical shift led to Cucurella scoring several crucial goals for Chelsea last season, including a late winner against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge in May… Gusto is a more awkward fit inverting into midfield, and Maresca has not returned to it since the Frenchman was targeted by Real Betis in the UEFA Conference League final. He is, however, a real overlapping threat, and was utilised in that manner to great effect against PSG in the Club World Cup final, creating the opening goal with one surge upfield. Chelsea's campaign in the United States was the stage for Maresca to get significantly more creative tactically. His experimental 4-2-2-2 shape against Flamengo in the group stage failed, but moving to a 4-3-3 enabled his team to press Fluminense much more effectively in the semi-final and in the final against PSG he started talisman Cole Palmer on the right and Reece James in midfield, enabling his club captain to drop into right-back when Gusto ran forward. Maresca's team were also highly aggressive out of possession against the European champions, pressing man-to-man. Levi Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah both pushed well into the PSG half to track Ousmane Dembele whenever he drifted deep, with Moises Caicedo filling the gap in the defensive line behind them. On other occasions, Chelsea are happy to drop off a little into a mid-block and use their attackers to screen opposition passing angles through their lines, trusting their defenders and goalkeeper to sweep up any high balls over the top. When forced to defend deep, they often try to play offside on the edge of their own penalty area — a strategy practised by Maresca's other coaching mentor, Manuel Pellegrini. This was exploited by several opponents last season, but it also routinely catches attackers offside. Advertisement On the ball, Maresca's preference is for his side to build with short passes from his goalkeeper, often with the aim of baiting opponents into a press that creates space higher up the pitch. Chelsea are very capable of moving the ball forward quickly in such situations, with plenty of speed in their attacking line and an elite transition passer in Palmer to release them. But against PSG, goalkeeper Robert Sanchez was instructed to kick longer, bypassing PSG's attempted press and often isolating Gusto against Nuno Mendes. It proved to be inspired. Chelsea's other tactical evolution at the Club World Cup was a shift towards short corners. Last season, Chelsea's 4.1 goals per 100 set pieces ranked 10th in the Premier League, while their 4.6 goals conceded per 100 set pieces was the sixth-worst in the division. Maresca and set-piece coach Bernardo Cueva do not have the biggest or most aerially talented squad to work with, so passing short at attacking corners makes sense. The structure is illustrated below, with one player positioned on the byline and another level with the penalty area to form a triangle that entices opponents out to defend. Chelsea manoeuvred this situation into an own goal from Palmeiras defender Agustin Giay in the Club World Cup quarter-final, and it has the added benefit of limiting the risk of giving up defensive transition. All in all, Chelsea took 26 of their 43 attacking corners at the tournament short. This summer's recruitment should make Chelsea even more versatile. Up front, Liam Delap and Joao Pedro both made an immediate positive impact at the Club World Cup and each offers a different aspect of what Nicolas Jackson provided to this team last season, while also providing a more clinical touch in the final third… On the left flank, Maresca can pick from Jamie Gittens or Pedro Neto, depending on which angles of attack he wants to take. On the right, Brazilian prodigy Estevao can provide an X factor and lessen the creative burden that weighed heavily on Palmer at times last season. Chelsea have far better and more varied tools to pick apart opposition low blocks. Advertisement Behind the front line, the rounded skill set of returning loanee Andrey Santos should make Chelsea's midfield more fluid and flexible. Caicedo and Cucurella, two of Maresca's most-picked players in 2024-25, finally have specialist understudies in the forms of Dario Essugo and Jorrel Hato, the latter of whom can also cover for the injured Colwill at centre-back. Maresca fielded 27 players at the Club World Cup, more than any other manager in the competition. He has more options than ever, and Chelsea's identity is more sophisticated as a result. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
New York Times
a few seconds ago
- New York Times
Enjoy the new Premier League season, there might not be many more like it
If, like all of my social circle, you did not follow this summer's expanded Club World Cup, you missed some decent games, a few upsets, a lot of Donald Trump and a surprise win for Chelsea. It was fine, but fine was good enough to ensure it will happen again in four years' time — perhaps sooner — and that means you also possibly missed the beginning of the end of football as most of us know it. Advertisement When the new Premier League season starts tomorrow evening, many of the world's best players will embark on an 11-month season that will finish at next summer's World Cup, the old-fashioned one but with 48 teams and 104 games, not 32 and 64, as per recent editions. This will be less than five weeks after Chelsea beat Paris Saint-Germain in New York, but only two weeks after Manchester United drew with Everton to clinch the Premier League's very own American showcase event, the Summer Series. It is not just the world's best players who are now locked into an endless content-creation cycle. The first round of Champions League qualifying took place on July 8, the same day Chelsea beat Fluminense in the semi-final of the Club World Cup, a tournament that neither brought the curtain down on 2024-25 nor raised it for 2025-26 — there is no curtain anymore. The lower leagues in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and elsewhere in northern Europe are always early starters, but England's Leagues One and Two began their new campaigns on August 1. In fact, League Two's Barnet and Newport County had already played each other in an EFL Cup preliminary round on July 29 — in other words, before most of their fans had gone on their summer holidays, let alone taken some time off to enjoy the cricket season, the Lions tour, a music festival, a summer fete, anything other than football, basically. The English Football League had no choice but to start so early, as it is the only way to ensure there is room in the schedule to include the record nine Premier League teams who have qualified for European football this season when they join the competition in the third round. What else can the EFL do when UEFA adds a third European competition, the Conference League, in 2021, and then expands all three of its club competitions in 2024, adding extra games and teams? The Champions League leapt from 125 to 189 games last season — once that happened, every new edition of the EFL Cup is a minor miracle. Advertisement The EFL could just stop scheduling it, I suppose, but Premier League clubs appear to like winning it, as do their fans. Newcastle United's certainly did. It also makes up a big chunk of the EFL's broadcast revenues and the Premier League's participation in the competition is one of the least painful contributions the top flight makes to the rest of the professional pyramid. Take that away and Premier League boss Richard Masters is going to have an even harder time trying to convince his shareholders to send more money down the pipe before the new independent football regulator makes them. But that is not his only headache. Masters has been talking about the fact that the Premier League has been the same size and shape for more than three decades — 20 teams, 380 games — for several years now. He was at it again earlier this month, when the BBC asked him why the Premier League does not just shrink to 18 teams. After all, that was the original idea back in 1992, when the Football Association encouraged the top clubs to break away from the EFL, its ancient rival, and form the Premier League. The clubs were only half-listening, though, and having cut the top division from 22 teams to 20, decided to stop there. 'I don't think we should be forced into that decision,' said Masters. 'I am all for the growth of the game and the exciting competitions our clubs can participate in, but not at the expense of domestic football.' FIFA and UEFA have been dropping not-so-subtle hints that 18-team leagues, with a maximum of 306 games, is where everyone should have arrived by now. Germany's Bundesliga has had 18 teams since 1965, but France's Ligue 1 got the memo in 2023, having scrapped its second domestic cup competition three years earlier. This means only England, Italy and Spain still have 20-team leagues in Europe. Advertisement Italy's Serie A actually voted on whether to go to 18 teams last year, but the clubs backed the status quo by a 16-4 margin. Ominously, the less-is-more quartet were the Milan duo, Juventus and Roma. If La Liga put it to their clubs in Spain, we can be fairly sure of how Barcelona and Real Madrid would vote. For what it is worth, that French decision looks worse with every passing season, as their domestic television deal has cratered and PSG, insulated by Qatari sovereign wealth and their overseas earnings, have disappeared into the distance. Everyone apart from them could use the extra matchday revenue and broadcast inventory now. But big clubs have broad horizons, with foreign fans and global sponsors. UEFA and now FIFA have shown them the value of international competition and they want more of it, which means less time for domestic chores. Would England's aristocrats vote to cut the Premier League? Maybe, maybe not. Unlike their European peers, they can still see the benefit of domestic football in their profit and loss accounts, as the Premier League, for a variety of reasons, has become the closest thing to a European Super League since the Big Six briefly conspired with Barca, Juve, Real and Co to create a more regular and lucrative place to get together than the Champions League. A combination of crass planning, fan power and opportunistic populism on the part of the British government saw that abomination collapse inside 72 hours, but instead of being punished for their treachery, the ESL's 12 founding clubs were rewarded with an expanded Champions League and revamped Club World Cup. With the Premier League's overseas media rights still rising in value, its stadiums full (and growing) and almost half of its clubs playing in Europe this season, the status quo looks pretty good right now. But Masters can see the writing on the wall. Advertisement Entirely fed up with FIFA grabbing bigger chunks of the calendar, the Premier League has teamed up with Europe's other domestic leagues and the continent's players' unions to lodge a formal complaint against the global governing body at the European Commission. By bringing European Union competition law into football's fixture squabbles, the leagues and players are telling FIFA they believe the game has reached saturation point, the players are knackered, and there are no more cup replays to scrap. To be honest, questions could be asked as to why the leagues and players did not combine to resist UEFA's expansionism, but the European confederation at least invites representatives from the leagues and unions to its meetings before telling them it is going to create new competitions, grab more exclusive midweek slots, and maybe pinch a weekend or two. The Premier League also knows it cannot get too stroppy with an organisation that provides at least a third of its shareholders with large cheques each season, not to mention the fact that the race for European berths is a vital component of the Premier League's annual narrative. FIFA, on the other hand, consults via press release and photo opportunity, as FIFPro, the global players' union, has been pointing out of late. And, unlike UEFA, its president, Gianni Infantino, is not trying to defend a dominant position, he is attempting to disrupt it, globalise it and own it. Which brings us back to the Club World Cup that may have completely passed you by. Perhaps you did not watch any of the games, but you read about some poor attendances, extreme weather and a couple of mismatches. You may have only just seen a few memes of Cole Palmer doing something brilliant or funny or both. For the record, I did not properly watch a single moment of it live, although I did read about it and watch the best clips on social media, which is not that dissimilar to how my children follow most football. The closest I got to watching it live was on holiday in Spain, where the final was on all the TVs in all the bars and restaurants that you would expect to show live football. FIFA and its Saudi-backed streaming partner DAZN may even have counted me and thousands of other passers-by that night in their viewing statistics, which is fine, as I did notice the score and got slightly interested when PSG's players and manager Luis Enrique lost their tempers at the end. That suggests they cared about it. And Chelsea's players looked very happy afterwards, albeit a little confused as to why the U.S. president had decided to photobomb their celebrations. Advertisement But nobody looked happier than Infantino. He knew he had done enough to ensure Saudi money will continue to flow FIFA's way until 2034 at least, as the Gulf state appears to be all-in on its big bet on sport. He knew that if I had more friends in Africa, Asia or South America, my social circle would certainly have watched the tournament. And he also knew that the inaugural event's host, the aforementioned commander in chief, was so pleased with how it had gone that he joked at half-time that maybe he should scribble one of his presidential decrees to replace 'soccer' as the game's name in America. 'The jury is out about the competitiveness of the format and the scheduling and the underlying economics, but it is not my job to assess the success or otherwise of the Club World Cup,' Masters told the BBC. 'It is my job to assess whether these new competitions have an impact on the domestic calendar and domestic competitions, of which the Premier League is one. 'Since 1994, the Premier League has been 380 matches, 20 clubs. We haven't changed shape at all. Now we are starting to redesign our domestic calendar at the altar of European and global expansion. 'We are asking the players to play in more matches. There has to be, at the top of the game, a proper dialogue between FIFA and all the stakeholders about how these things go forward. That has been sadly missing.' Yep, and now the only dialogue is going to be a row about whether the Club World Cup should go to 48 teams in 2029, with more spots for Masters' shareholders, or maybe we should just let FIFA do it every two years, floating from summer to winter as it crosses the globe. If that happens, and there is no question that FIFA wants that to happen — ideally in rotation with a biennial men's World Cup — we can forget 18-team domestic top flights, with deep professional pyramids and historic national cup competitions. We will be lucky to find time for a 16-team domestic league and when that happens, we will all realise that fixture congestion was never just a problem for a handful of superstars. So, enjoy this season — cherish it, even — because there might not be many like it left. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
New York Times
a few seconds ago
- New York Times
How have Premier League teams spent this summer? Upgrading their attacks
Whether for painfully rudimentary reasons or tactically complex ones, it is clear that the top teams have prioritised their attacks ahead of the new Premier League season. The transfer window for English football's elite has been full of signings that add an extra dimension to their forward play, with out-and-out No 9s and creative attacking midfielders appearing to be the order of the day — Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz to Liverpool, Viktor Gyokeres and Noni Madueke to Arsenal, Liam Delap, Jamie Gittens and Joao Pedro to Chelsea, and Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko to Manchester United, to name but a few. Advertisement Rather than a simple plug-and-play attacking solution, it is interesting to see how such moves help to shift a team's style of play with the attributes that the newcomers possess. It can be something of a poisoned chalice to pigeonhole yourself into a particular style in the modern game, but having the requisite weapons to punish the opposition depending on the tactical demands they pose is often the optimal approach. For those who need a refresher, here is an overview of the business that has already been conducted in the Premier League during the summer 2025 transfer window… so far. So, what insight can we glean from all this activity among the Premier League's top clubs? Crucially, how might it change each side's style of play for the upcoming season? Rotation was a key theme of Chelsea's summer as Enzo Maresca excellently navigated their way to Club World Cup triumph in the United States. Some might still point to a bloated squad at Stamford Bridge but their transfer business has equipped them with greater attacking versatility, which should allow them to battle on multiple fronts for the upcoming season. The arrivals of Gittens and teenage starlet Estevao are interesting, but the signings of Delap and Joao Pedro suggest Chelsea are keen to have strikers who can fulfil different demands for Maresca. On the one hand, Delap is far more likely to stretch the opposition with lung-busting runs beyond their back line, while Joao Pedro offers a little more poise coming towards the ball and creating space for others to exploit. This is highlighted below in SkillCorner's off-ball running profiles, with Delap's high volume of runs ahead of the ball compared with Joao Pedro's inclination to make supporting movements. Maresca has not been shy in sharing exactly what he sees the Brazil international offering his team. 'Joao is a very good player,' he said before that victory over Paris Saint-Germain last month to make Chelsea champions of the world for the next four years. 'The reason why we bought him is because we think he is going to help us, especially against teams who defend deep in low blocks — he is good in small spaces, he has real quality.' Advertisement Breaking down low blocks is a task that most elite sides face, and Manchester City have also tweaked their forward line to adjust to the guaranteed demands. The arrival of Omar Marmoush in January signalled a subtle change in how Pep Guardiola's side were aiming to overwhelm opposition defences with sharp and incisive running in-behind, and City look to have doubled down on that approach with the acquisition of Rayan Cherki, who is an expert at finding such movement with pinpoint passing into the box. No player in Europe's top five leagues recorded a higher expected assists (xA) rate per 90 minutes last season than the 21-year-old Frenchman did for Lyon, pointing to a player who routinely moves the ball into dangerous areas with his passing. Cherki registered his first City assist with a perfect floated pass for Phil Foden against Al Hilal at the Club World Cup, lifting the ball over a five-man defensive line. It was a passage of play that served as a warning for the new European season; even if you sit deep against Cherki, he can still find the spaces in behind. Tijjani Reijnders is another player who can add forward thrust from City's midfield, having already shown his appetite for a late run into the box, while Rayan Ait-Nouri adds unpredictability from full-back. As we saw against Juventus in this summer's tournament, City can take up a number of shapes with the latter as their left-back. The Algerian is equally capable of tucking into midfield, running the flanks, playing probing passes from a wide-centre-back role or making darting movements towards goal. City found great success down that flank last season with the forward momentum of Josko Gvardiol; a positionally-fluid left side with both players in the team would be a nightmare for opponents to have to track. Arsenal are taking a similar approach in evolving their attacking options. We'll have more on Gyokeres later, but it is Madueke's arrival that might actually be crucial in providing greater rotation across Mikel Arteta's forward line as he plots another title push. Bukayo Saka's three-month injury absence was a big miss for Arsenal last season, and Madueke can provide a suitable alternative to ease the attacking burden on the 23-year-old as a tricky, creative winger. Meanwhile, the potency of Arsenal's left flank has dwindled in the past 18 months, and although Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard remain good options, Madueke's ability to play on either wing will mean that Arteta simply has more options to choose from. Liverpool's transfer business also points to added versatility in attacking areas. If it is intensity, pace and power they are looking for, then an attacking contingent of Cody Gakpo, Ekitike, Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai might be their best bet. If it is poise, line-breaks and wriggling out of tight spaces against low blocks, then coach Arne Slot has the mercurial talent of Wirtz to unlock an opposition defence in an instant. Advertisement This was shown with Wirtz's assist for Ekitike in the Community Shield on Sunday, where a packed defensive third is filled with five Crystal Palace players surrounding Liverpool's striker. Wirtz pulls wide, finds space, then fizzes a pass to Ekitike's back foot, to allow him to turn instantly and finish. What an introduction by Hugo Ekitike 🤩 4 minutes is all it for the big Frenchman to make his mark, with a brilliant finish to put Liverpool ahead ⚽️ 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 10, 2025 The best teams work on a 'horses for courses' basis, and that phrase has never looked to be more relevant than this summer with the attacking options that have been expanded. As already mentioned, City looked zippier with their off-ball movement at the Club World Cup, much happier to target the penalty area with runs in-behind than they often looked during the rest of last season. Particularly throughout their barren winter run, especially in December's 2-1 away defeat against Aston Villa and the 1-1 home draw with Everton a few days later, attacking patterns were often predictable and containable, played out in front of the opposition defence, with few overlapping runs or sudden bursts towards the box. According to SkillCorner, City completed 52 runs in-behind the defensive line against Al Ain in their second group game of the Club World Cup, and 41 against Juventus in the third and final one, having only completed 40 or more in just four of their 38 Premier League games last season. Though it's early in the rejuvenation project, it seems as if City may be looking to embrace the destructive power of more direct running for the season ahead. Adapting their attacking speed might also be something that Arteta is looking at, with Arsenal rarely looking to thread balls in behind the opposition, relative to the rest of the league. Again using data from SkillCorner, 44 per cent of their runs in behind last season were targeted with a pass, which was the lowest share in the Premier League, pointing to a team who sought the control of steady build-up more so than the risk of a trickier ball played over the defensive line they were facing. The arrival of Gyokeres looks likely to change that figure, with the Sweden international specialising in channel runs and a boisterous work rate to disrupt the opposition defence. Per SkillCorner, Gyokeres made 85 sprints (runs at an average pace of 25km/h or more) in behind the opposition defensive line in 2023-24 for Sporting CP — more than double any other striker there in Portugal's Primeira Liga and 24 more than the Premier League's leader in that metric, Nicolas Jackson of Chelsea. Advertisement Of course, the added benefit of making such runs is that if they are not targeted, they can still be important in dragging opposition defenders backwards and making space for the runner's team-mates to receive the ball between the lines. Creating tension in opposition structures will be crucial to Arteta's plans for this season. Step off Arsenal and Martin Odegaard can find pockets of space to punish you, but squeeze the pitch and Gyokeres' runs can be the catalyst for chaos. With the graphic above highlighting Newcastle's directness going forward, coach Eddie Howe appears to be doubling down on transitional profiles with the signing of Anthony Elanga from Nottingham Forest. Per SkillCorner, Elanga was the Premier League's fastest wide attacker last season, and his fleet-footed style will only add to the pacy threat that Newcastle offer across their forward line. 'He caught the eye, and you could see his qualities with his speed,' Howe said of the Swede after his debut in Newcastle's friendly with Celtic last month. 'Of course, he's in the very early days of finding out how we play, which is sometimes difficult for new players.' While Jacob Murphy performed admirably on Newcastle's right flank last season, Elanga's ability to play off both feet will provide greater attacking balance beyond his ability to drag his team upfield. Newcastle's failed pursuit of Ekitike also revealed Howe's inclination to add further directness to his side within such a physically demanding style. Alongside Newcastle, Liverpool are already established as one of the most devastating transitional sides anywhere on the continent, with 14 goals from fast breaks being the most across Europe's top four leagues last season. As shown by data from Footovision, they move quickly when the opportunity is there to break forward. Mohamed Salah sat at the top of the Europe-wide tree with 22 shots from fast-break sequences. Second on the list? New Anfield signing Ekitike, with 18 for a direct Eintracht Frankfurt side who finished third in the German Bundesliga. Ekitike thrives in open space, regularly driving upfield when there is grass to run into. With his wiry 6ft 2in (190cm) frame and underestimated close control, Liverpool can use the 23-year-old as the fulcrum of the attack with his ability to create for others and score himself. Looking across Slot's newly assembled attack, it does have the potential to possess a fluidity that could be in-keeping with Luis Enrique's European champions Paris Saint-Germain — a style that Slot has been open in admiring. Advertisement Particularly in the modern game, having players with the profile to break man-to-man marking schemes can be the key to unlocking a defensive structure. For Tottenham Hotspur, the arrival of dribble-monster Mohammed Kudus could help to attract bodies towards him and so make space for team-mates elsewhere. For context, only Jeremy Doku has averaged more than Kudus' eight take-ons per 90 minutes since the start of the 2023-24 season. 'I think he gives us a bit of that unpredictability in the game,' Tottenham head coach Thomas Frank said of Kudus. 'I think his one-on-one actions are top, I think his slide passes are top, I think his finishing is very good. He is almost the perfect age (the Ghanaian turned 25 at the start of this month) to perform but also to take the next level.' Even if they don't get the goal or assist themselves, having attacking players who can open up the game allows dominoes to fall elsewhere on the pitch. A move to more dribbly, athletic runners has certainly been a feature among the top sides in recent seasons. Improving a club's attack is not limited to those who play in forward positions. Liverpool's signing of full-backs Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong has the potential to transform — or rather, catalyse — their attacking play in wide areas, with both players being relentless runners going forward. Supporting runs made through overlaps and underlaps were a key feature of Slot's new-look side last season, often dragging opposition defenders away to allow wingers to come inside. In Kerkez and Frimpong, he now has two full-backs who are among Europe's best for forward runs to disrupt the opposition back line — as shown below, using data from SkillCorner. In the former, you have a player who made more underlapping runs (rating: 99 out of 99) than any full-back across Europe's top seven leagues. In the latter, somebody more willing than most to arrive in the box from wide areas (Cross receiver rating: 98 out of 99). If you wanted a clear signal as to how Slot is looking to retain the title, it looks as though attack is his best form of defence. Over at City, Ait-Nouri's arrival adds greater versatility to Guardiola's attack, given that the Algeria international can play as an inverted or touchline-hugging full-back. This was on show during the Club World Cup as Guardiola looked to experiment with new shapes and personnel in the United States, and not just with his new left-back. For some games (for example, against Wydad AC), Guardiola asked full-backs Nico O'Reilly and Rico Lewis to tuck inside to support with City's structure in and out of possession; but other matches required Ait-Nouri and Matheus Nunes to stay high and wide to stretch the opposition back line — much like City were doing towards the end of the domestic 2024-25 season. Again, it only adds to the options that Guardiola has at his disposal when thinking about how to use his full-backs within his attacking approach. Often, such shape shifts can change within games as well as from one match to another, but it is hardly surprising to see that the 54-year-old Catalan continues to rack his brain for solutions to break down an opponent while mitigating any defensive risk. Sometimes, it really is that simple when looking to improve your attack — find players who can score a lot of goals. Manchester United scored just 44 times in the league last season, the fifth-lowest total in the division and the club's worst return in the 33-year Premier League era. Therefore, buying players who have proven that they can put the ball in the back of the net is a good way to go this summer. Advertisement Mbeumo and Cunha were two of those players, scoring 30 non-penalty goals between them for Brentford and Wolves respectively last season. A crucial caveat is that they were expected to rack up just over half of that combined tally — based on the quality of chances they had — as two of the biggest expected goals (xG) overperformers in the division. On the one hand, you could spin a positive that United are signing the most clinical finishers around to bolster their attack. On the other, you would anticipate seeing such figures regress to typical levels across a longer period. Quite simply, both of Mbeumo's and Cunha's respective hot streaks in front of goal are unlikely to be sustainable in a United shirt, but their arrivals at Old Trafford might be crucial in connecting the midfield and attack — with coach Ruben Amorim's side looking disjointed going forward last season. Throw in striker Sesko to spearhead that attack — a player with 27 league goals in 64 games across the past two seasons at RB Leipzig — and there is plenty of attacking firepower that will unquestionably improve United's goalscoring return. Aside from the tactical upside that Gyokeres will bring to Arsenal, it would be crass not to point out that the 27-year-old is also very good at knowing where the goal is. A return of 68 in the league across his two seasons at Sporting is ludicrous, with 1.25 goals per 90 (albeit, including penalties) being comfortably the highest rate across Europe's top seven leagues last season. Sure, he is known for working the channels, but deliver the ball into the box and you are likely to find him jostling with defenders to get on the end of it. Similarly, Ekitike is no slouch in getting into good goalscoring positions, with his 0.68 non-penalty xG per 90 being the highest rate in the Bundesliga last season — and the fifth highest across Europe's top five leagues. His actual goalscoring rate trailed behind slightly, but if he continues to hoover up similar-quality chances in a Liverpool shirt, you would expect the goals to flow more freely for him in the Premier League. (llustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
