Sports - Football - Transfers
Updated: July 30, 2020

Manchester City Possible New Centre Back, Nathan Ake Things To Know About Him

By Oladimeji Balogun
July 30, 2020
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The Netherlands Centre back, Nathan Ake is on the verge of joining Manchester City with an initial bid of £41M accepted by Bournemouth. Pep Guardiola is looking to add to the depth of his defense and has identified the former Chelsea center back as a perfect suit to the Club.

Bournemouth suffered relegation from the EPL this season and has to play in the EFL Championship, win or finish top 3 to make it back to the top tier next season. As usual, a relegated team could lose their stars with EPL giants circling in and the opportunity to play in European Leagues used as a selling point.

Bournemouth is the latest victim and Manchester City is the recent predator, going after the former Chelsea man who has been incredible since he joined the Vitality Stadium.

Things to expect from Nathan Ake?

Local know-how

The left-footed player can operate as a left-back, center-back or play as a defensive midfielder in a 3-4-3 formation, he predominantly plays as a central defender, he has also been deployed as a left-back. He has been loaned out from Chelsea to several teams across English premiership which gives him a wide range of knowledge of team styles, terrain, movements of players.

Style of play

Aké has been praised for his versatility, being able to play at both full-back, center back and in defensive midfield, which has been attributed to a good work ethic, professionalism, and gifted technique. He is calm, cool and patient which allows him to give pin-point tackles, precise runs, aerial clearance which could only be found in one player in Manchester City squad, Aymeric Laporte

He is not so much aggressive which could be useful when other aggressive player like Nicholas Otamendi is out with a card or suspended for a match. He is so far from a red card player with his last red card in2015-16 season when he played for Watford

Aké said that even though he has played as a defender in recent seasons, he sees himself as a holding midfielder and that his favorite position is in the midfield, which makes him a versatile player giving Guardiola a wide range of options especially with Mendy medical history, Nathan Ake will come in handy.

We are not sure if the pen has being put to paper but for now, reports from Skysports show there is an agreement is on the way.