The £67m world class striker who might fix Manchester City - and whether he could replace Erling Haaland

It hasn’t been discussed very much, so you might well have missed it – but Manchester City aren’t having a very good season. Their title defence is in disarray, they recently went through the worst run of form any Pep Guardiola side has ever endured, and they’re struggling for goals, so it’s hardly a shock to see the club dip into the January transfer market. But can Omar Marmoush, who seems set to move to the Etihad this month, really help City to turn things around?

Will Marmoush make Manchester City better?

Sky Sports are among the outlets reporting that a deal has been agreed “in principle” between City and the Egyptian striker’s current club Eintracht Frankfurt, although the fee still needs to be settled. The German club apparently want €80m (£67m) for Marmoush’s services, while City are haggling for a deal worth no more than £50m, so there is a lot of negotiating to get through – but the 25-year-old, who has already scored 18 goals this season, seems more than likely to be in Manchester by the end of the month.

The most immediate question is whether Marmoush is being signed as support for Erling Haaland, or as competition for the Norwegian’s starting place. Marmoush is capable of playing across the front three and is certainly less of a traditional number nine than Haaland, but has ultimately enjoyed the bulk of his success (and scored most of his goals) in a central role.

Certainly, it’s likely that the Egypt international is being signed as a goalscorer, not a provider. He could conceivably play as a winger of some stripe and has a healthy record when it comes to providing assists (13 in the Bundesliga since signing for Frankfurt from Wolsburg at the start of last season), but his meteoric rise over the past 18 months can be primarily attributed to his knack for finding the back of the net.

Marmoush scored 17 goals in 39 games in his first season in Frankfurt but has really hit top form since the start of the new campaign with 18 strikes in 24 matches across all competitions. 11 assists in total have helped to create the impression of a complete forward coming into his own, and that’s what Manchester City are set to pay top dollar for.

In winning the title last season, City scored 2.52 goals per game in the Premier League – but this year, that number has fallen to 1.8, and it’s clear that a fresh attacking spark is required if they want to at least ensure that they qualify for the Champions League again. Marmoush has been second only to Harry Kane as a goalscorer in Germany this season, and been one of the Bundesliga’s brightest creative forces at the same time.

Can Marmoush replace Erling Haaland?

Even given how well Marmoush has been playing this season, it seems unlikely that City are planning to replace Haaland outright. For starters, while Haaland’s form has fallen off hard after a typically lethal start to the season, he has still outscored Marmoush with a total of 21 goals, albeit from more games – but his rate of 0.79 goals per game is only fractionally worse than Marmoush’s impressive 0.82.

More likely, then, is that Guardiola is conceptualising the Egyptian as either a wide forward playing a much more aggressive role than we’re used to seeing from Manchester City’s wingers, or as a shadow striker in the mould of Julián Álvarez. Marmoush’s versatility means that either role should be within his wheelhouse, even if they might not be immediately familiar.

If Marmoush is viewed as an alternative at centre-forward, however, then he certainly fits the historic Guardiola style more readily. City’s head coach has, throughout his career, tended to prefer strikers who drop deep or ply the channels rather than playing off the shoulder of the last man, and he bucked his own trend when he signed Haaland. Marmoush has played a slightly narrower role for Frankfurt this season but still spends a lot of time around the penalty area rather than in it and is much more comfortable in the build-up.

Marmoush could, in other words, be a signing which signals Guardiola’s intent to return to his core tactical values – which would be bad news for Haaland, who is the outlier. But however Guardiola and City see the Egyptian lining up, the biggest question is simply whether he can sustain his current form.

Where Haaland had already scored over a hundred professional goals by the time he turned 21, Marmoush only managed to beat his prior personal best of seven goals in a season for the first time last year. His mid-twenties ‘glow up’ has been quite remarkable, and it’s reasonable to ask whether his exceptional form is sustainable or a flash in the pan.

Manchester City might be about to find out, whether they pay £50m or considerably more. At that price tag, he would have to maintain his current high standards for some time, whether he’s intended to compete with or complement Haaland. It’s a tall order, but he has looked like a truly world class player for the past six months. If he can drag that out for something closer to six years, he would end up looking like a bargain, but the first order of business is saving City’s season. On current form, he’d have good odds to achieve that.