Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne were the star performers of Manchester City's treble-winning campaign in 2022/23, but they have missed seven months between them due to injury this time around.
De Bruyne required hamstring surgery after pulling up during City's Premier League opener at Burnley, while Haaland was laid low for the majority of December and January with a bone-stress injury in his foot.
Other key performers in Pep Guardiola's squad, such as Jack Grealish and John Stones, have also been in and out of the starting XI due to form and fitness issues, while midfield lynchpin Rodri has sat out three Premier League games through suspension. It is more than a coincidence that those represent their three top-flight defeats this term.
Indeed, there is only one player in the squad who has started every Premier League game. If you haven't been paying close attention, you might struggle to name him.
Saturday's scrappy 1-1 draw against Chelsea was the 24th time out of 24 games when Julian Alvarez lined up at kickoff for City. This is no mean feat under a coach as infamously hard to please as Guardiola and in such a talent-stacked squad.
However, this achievement has not been met with widespread acclaim. On the contrary, Alvarez's continued presence is being viewed by a significant number of fans as a hindrance in a gripping three-way title battle with Liverpool and Arsenal.
MORE: Highlights and analysis of Man City's battling 1-1 draw with Chelsea
Why Julian Alvarez has started every Man City Premier League game
Here, The Sporting News explores why Guardiola has persisted in playing Alvarez even when some fans would argue his performances haven't been up to scratch.
Adaptability turned Alvarez from Haaland back-up to 'spectacular' midfielder
Alvarez finalised his transfer from River Plate to Manchester in January 2022, moving to Manchester in June of that year. By that stage, a far higher-profile signing had been made at centre-forward.
Haaland set about smashing the Premier League single-season scoring record and netted 52 times in all competitions in 2022/23. Alvarez's main brief was to serve as Haaland's understudy and himself weighed in with 17 goals, including nine in the Premier League and three apiece in the UEFA Champions League and FA Cup.
The highlight of Alvarez's season came away from City colours, however, as he established himself as Lionel Messi's attacking partner on Argentina's emotional ride to glory at the 2022 World Cup. His performances for club and country led to a place on the Ballon d'Or shortlist — some feat for a young second-choice striker.
Alvarez had obviously proved himself to be a player beyond that status and, although Guardiola is not the type to be swayed by individual awards nominations, there was an imperative to find a role for "La Arana" ("the spider") beyond being Haaland's stunt double.
During the treble-season run-in, Alvarez sometimes featured as a rotation option for De Bruyne, slotting in as an attacking midfielder. When the Belgium playmaker was injured in the Champions League final, Phil Foden came on in his place, underlining Alvarez's position in the midfield pecking order at that stage. But there was the seed of something for Guardiola to revisit. Circumstances have led to him nurturing it most weeks of this season.
Last year, The Sporting News spoke to a source familiar with Guardiola and his coaching team and Alvarez's role was one of the topics discussed.
"When it became clear how effective he was as an assister and goal scorer, we thought [Haaland and Alvarez] could live together in the team, but it seemed that Julian would have to be placed perhaps as a winger," the source said. "Suddenly, last season, he started to play in the 'De Bruyne zone' in some games and gave a promising performance."
The source was positively gushing about Alvarez's midfield conversion, labelling it as "spectacular" and saying the 24-year-old had "exploded" and was "giving an unprecedented version of his game".
Julian Alvarez stats: Attacking output justifies Guardiola's faith
Guardiola's confidence in Alvarez was underscored when he lined up alongside De Bruyne at Turf Moor in August, although the latter succumbing to a serious injury was arguably the most influential factor in the Argentine's season.
During last summer's transfer window, City lost captain Ilkay Gundogan to Barcelona on a free transfer — a rare misstep from director of football Txiki Begiristain that continues to cast a shadow over the campaign. Riyad Mahrez moved to Al Ahli in the Saudi Pro League and, by the time De Bruyne was ruled out for half of the season, Guardiola was missing a trio who accounted for 36 goals and 47 assists last term.
Even allowing for Haaland's gargantuan scoring efforts, that accounted for a significant shortfall before we consider that City's two midfield signings — Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes — have never been noted for putting the ball in the net.
Enter Alvarez, who started City's first 15 games of 2023/24 without playing at centre-forward once.
"Today, he is the most surprising player at City because he meets all the requirements that Pep wants," The Sporting News was told by its source in October, perhaps tellingly before the November run of four winless games that halted the momentum of City's title defence.
"He runs more than anyone else, runs with sense and intelligence, scores goals, provides assists and above all he is showing a tactical sense of the game that we didn't think he could have. It has been a major surprise that has benefited the team a lot."
Julian Alvarez Man City stats in 2023/24 (Premier League)
| Number | Squad ranking | |
| Goals | 8 | 2nd |
| Assists | 6 | 2nd |
| Shots | 70 | 2nd |
| Chances created | 56 | 1st |
| Expected goals (xG) | 8.8 | 2nd |
| Expected assists (xA) | 5.3 | 1st |
| Possession won in final 1/3 | 22 | 1st |
As the statistics above demonstrate, Alvarez's attacking output justifies Guardiola's faith. However, numbers alone are not enough, especially for a coach who has produced some of the most aesthetically pleasing teams in football history, when his side looks as clunky as they did against Chelsea.
"He's a guy with a sense of goal, the movements between lines and we have another guy [in attack] when the teams defend so, so deep and it happens quite often," Guardiola said after Saturday's game when asked about Alvarez's Premier League omnipresence. "We have a guy with a sense of goal, which is important.
"And I think he plays because he deserves it and in the absence of Erling for two months he was a key, key point with Phil. Yeah, really good in that terms."
Does Julian Alvarez deserve to play for Man City?
It felt telling that, when invited to outline Alvarez's qualities, Guardiola instantly went to his "sense of goal" and highlighted his performances in his natural position during Haaland's injury lay-off.
Four of his eight Premier League goals this season came during this winter period, while he also scored twice and laid on an assist for Foden in the 4-0 FIFA Club World Cup final demolition of Fluminense. That brace sits within 15 goals in 35 outings across all competitions.
Since Haaland's return, Alvarez has reverted to his midfield brief. Although he has created more chances than any City player (eight) other than De Bruyne over this three-game spell, it has yielded neither a goal nor an assist.
The back-to-back home matches versus Everton and Chelsea saw City struggle for fluency and they enjoyed a marked improvement when Bernardo Silva — who was carrying an ankle knock and not fit for the 90 minutes — replaced Alvarez during the second half against Mauricio Pochettino's side.
The 3-1 midweek Champions League win over Copenhagen jars against these games for anyone making a defence of Alvarez's qualities. An attacking midfield quartet of Foden, Silva, De Bruyne and Grealish lined up and the holders produced a display of smooth domination until Grealish was injured midway through the first half. Jeremy Doku came on and they picked up the baton soon enough. Alvarez was an unused substitute.
Per 90 minutes in the Premier League, Alvarez averages 37 passes per game. This is significantly lower than Grealish (48), Foden (49.4) and Silva (64). It means City will not look as much like City when Alvarez plays in attacking midfield. In games such as the one against Chelsea, that makes them seem more vulnerable.
Manuel Akanji grappling with the hybrid defender/midfielder role also seemed to rob City of their rhythm at times and dressing-room opinion was split on how much they missed their traditional playmakers.
"Obviously, the result ain't gone the way that we wanted it to, so everyone's looking for answers of why it's not gone that way, but whoever steps in, whoever plays in this team, nine times out of 10 does really well. We've got different players that have different strengths and different weaknesses," said Kyle Walker, giving the sort of assessment you'd expect from a captain.
Highlights of our battling display vs Chelsea at the Etihad, including a late leveller from Rodrigo! 🎥 pic.twitter.com/7eVTw9o6QE
— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 17, 2024
Silva, having watched things unfold unsatisfactorily, saw things differently.
"The rhythm was not right and [neither was] the patience with the ball," he said. "We needed to play our game, which is not a game of transitions. It's a game of controlling the rhythms of the game.
"We know that if you play in a game of transitions — any team with quality — it's 50/50, and we don't want that. We let it happen. Credit to Chelsea. We needed more intensity in the high pressing and the duels. If you're not at your highest level against teams like Chelsea, it's not good enough. They caused us big problems in the transitions. We didn't control it."
There is an optics problem that feels almost impossible for Alvarez to navigate. De Bruyne's return has further complicated matters. In the Chelsea match, he was used in the left attacking-midfield position, having covered for De Bruyne in the 32-year-old's favoured inside-right slot.
The knock-on of this was Alvarez slotting in alongside Rodri out of possession, as opposed to leading the press alongside Haaland — another move away from familiarity and towards vulnerability. Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer were particularly proficient when it came to playing through Alvarez's area of the field.
It's another show of faith in the former River Plate standout's ability that Guardiola plumped for Alvarez at the weekend while Nunes resided on the bench. It's also a comment on a possibly ill-advised piece of transfer business that came after City were unable to secure primary targets Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice and Lucas Paqueta.
With pivotal March clashes with Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal on the horizon, the expectation is that Alvarez will drop out of the firing line as City revert to something more closely resembling type. Whether his efforts this season come to be viewed as a player selflessly and productively doing a job for the team to keep them in the fight during a time of injury struggles, or those of a coach's pet project who bought a winning machine to earth, will depend on how these key months shake out for City. Such is the fickle nature of football, with the truth probably somewhere in between.
Julian Alvarez trophies: How many has he won?
Here's the handy thing for Alvarez to fall back on in good times and bad: at this relatively early stage of his career, he's basically won the lot.
He appeared as a late substitute in the second leg during River Plate's historic Copa Libertadores win over sworn rivals Boca Juniors in 2018. The Copa Argentina and Supercopa Argentina came the following year and Alvarez was able to sign off on his time at River as a league champion, hoisting the Argentine Premier Division in 2021 along with the Trofeo de Campeones.
The same year, Argentina ended almost three decades without a major honour as they lifted the Copa America, a success that proved to be a springboard for the World Cup. Alvarez scored four times in Qatar, including twice in the semifinal win over Croatia. That success set up a 3-0 win over Italy to lift the Finalissima crown.
Back at City, he is now trying to add to the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble Guardiola's men compiled last season.