By: Kevin Kemboi
Every once in a while, a young pretender catches my wandering eye and takes my mind back to a former flame I once witnessed burn brighter than the sun on a late-spring afternoon; the pretender is Alvarez, the flame is Villa.
David Villa was somewhat of an enigma. The height of his power, as the mercurial forward of Valencia and the ruthless finisher who graced both Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010, coincided with the final years before the social media boom. By 2012, he’d suffered a horrendous leg break at the CWC with Barcelona his most notorious period, and had spent another year at the less heralded Atletico Madrid, winning La Liga before humbly drifting into the oblivion that was the MLS.
Many regard him as a great purely because of the stories told by those who were fortunate enough to see El Guaje in all his glory they hadn’t witnessed the Spanish Swiss Army knife he was.
Alvarez is the Villa they didn’t witness. Alvarez is the Villa I’ll witness again.
The Similitudes.
If their posture, lithe physique & Latin roots weren’t enough to send alarm bells ringing, their footballing repertoire dots the ‘I’s and crosses the ‘T’s.
The ability to play anywhere across the front 3 a matter of genuine importance to the role they played/will play, poaching instincts within the 18 yard box, uncanny awareness and anticipation to constantly play on the last shoulder possible and springing offside traps that would befuddle even the great Liverpool trap seen throughout 21/22, interplay ability and technical accordance or adaptability to highly technical models, the deceitful yet sharp turn of pace to create separation from one’s foe and finally, the unerring array of finishes, both inside and outside the box with either foot to devastating effect.
Some players have a trait I cannot quantify. I see it in Federico Chiesa’s relentless dribbling, in Xavi’s incessant scanning of the terrain, and Giorgio Chiellini’s heart-on-sleeve tackling. In the case of Villa & Alvarez, it’s this sheer obsession with scoring. They take every goal they can. Almost every opportunity is met with a ruthlessly clinical nature that would leave the most efficiency-advocating German nodding in Allemagne approval. For the latter duo, as well as their aforementioned contemporaries, it’s an unbridled pride and refinement of their craft.
There are far more intricacies which are simply beyond words. How does one explain their shared tendency of rifling shots into the roof of the net or the keeper’s near post from both flanks within the 18 yard box? How does one explain the ability to rotate into central zones and behave as a connector of play? How does one explain their constant success in wide 1v1 isolation situations despite being 9’s? How does one explain technical brilliance that would turn your favourite interior’s face green with raging yet admiring jealousy?
Following Alvarez’s move to Manchester City, the inklings between the dynamic forwards expanded from just profile similitudes to role recreations. It became more than just “Alvarez reminds me of Villa”.
The Common Denominator; Guardiola.
Villa’s beckoning to Barcelona and Alvarez’s move to Manchester were orchestrated by 1 man; Guardiola. To truly understand what makes Alvarez at City such a frightening prospect, one would have to assess Villa’s role at Barcelona.
At the height of the False 9 era, David Villa took up a supporting cast role at LW to Messi’s headline show at F9. It’s the nature and execution of that LW berth, no doubt encouraged by Guardiola, which is under scrutiny in this piece.
Villa was tasked with alternating between an isolation/stretching of play role on the touchline when carrying the torch of width holder and inverting when Abidal was the width holder. Creating 1v1 qualitative superiority against the RB and attacking the far post as the far side winger in accordance with ball-side winger/wing option getting to the byline — and vice versa. However, the prized jewel in the collection of traits and abilities was the socio-affective relationship between the LW, Villa and the far side 8/F9, Iniesta or Messi.
The greatest execution of the LW role by Villa was in 2010… against Real Madrid.
David Villa’s 2 goals and 1 assist were all key elements in the shared footballing facets between Julian Alvarez and himself.
Julian Alvarez performance against Alianza Lima highlighted everything Alvarez had, and more. What’s frightening is that everything possible from LW, is also viable from RW. The summer sales of Sterling and Jesus have cleared the path to the flanks. Many assume Haaland will be the one to cement and extend City’s dominance over the peninsula or it will be Grealish who adorns his home crowd(s) under the guile of the Spanish maestro’s influence. While totally understandable, I believe; I hope that it will be La Arana who’ll be flying the blue flag of Manchester.
