Sergio Gomez Joins Real Sociedad

Yesterday it was announced that Sergio Gomez would be leaving the club this summer, transferring to Real Sociedad as reported by Simon Bajkowski. A transfer that we all knew was coming this summer due to the constant rumors and his reduced minutes last season.

Arriving at Manchester City Sergio Gomez had some incredibly promising numbers at left back as you can see by the radar comparison to Gvardiol from this season in the Premier League.

The real issues for him was translating that to the Premier League and providing enough defensive ability to unseat the likes of Gvardiol, Ake and Akanji in the left-back position. Tough task.

It’s not like City signed a bad player either, he won player of the season for Anderlecht before making the move to City.

But this is a reminder of the level required at Manchester City. The technical ability and the competition within the squad. Even with his exceptional crossing ability, the chances of him getting minutes as a left winger were even smaller as he’s competing against Grealish and Foden during the 2022/23 season. Jeremy Doku and Oscar Bobb came into the squad for the 2023/24 season. That route was closed off.

We did get glimpses of his talent with moments like this at the start of the 2023/24 season.

At City you must have the trust of Guardiola and when it came to the defensive side of the game Gomez never got it. Used in games against lesser competition or when there was a dead rubber.

During the 2022/23 season Gomez played 962 minutes and that was reduced to 445 minutes for the 2023/24 season. Even for an academy player like Rico Lewis or Oscar Bobb we would be concerned about them playing that little. This past season Gomez only completed ninety minutes three times.

Gomez came into last season as one of the best players during the U21s Euros 2023, eventually losing to England in the final and playing against the likes of Cole Palmer and Curtis Jones. Providing three goals and two assists in the tournament for his country.

Here is just one of the moves Gomez was involved in.

That tournament he was playing as a left winger which removed the defensive responsibilities he’s struggled with at Manchester City and just got the best out of his technical ability. Dangerous crosses into the box, short combinations with his teammates in/around the box and making late runs into the box.

This summer you’ll get to see Sergio Gomez compete in the Olympics for Spain before heading to Real Sociedad. The move just from his perspective will be a good one. Heading into a league that reduces the physical demands for defenders and favors having technical ones. Yan Couto is another small and technical full back that’s just had a great season for Girona as an example. We may even see Gomez work his way into the lineup as a left winger.

It wasn’t the right fit at Manchester City given the competition within the squad and the ability he arrived with but there is no doubt Sergio Gomez can build himself a successful career elsewhere. A fan of the club and a life long blue, we wish him all the best in the next stage of his career at Real Sociedad.

This is my attempt at doing an exit interview for players that depart City during the summer, if you enjoyed this content please let me know. The longer the players career and bigger the impact they had on the club will dictate how much detail I’ll go into in the exit interview.

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