Who is Manuel Akanji? Injury History, Strengths and weaknesses

Manchester City are close to signing Switzerland international Manuel Akanji from Borussia Dortmund for a fee close to €17.5 million.

The champions haven’t stopped their summer recruitment drive just yet as they look to add the finishing touches to their squad for the 2022/23 campaign.

Manchester City, who have added Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez, Kalvin Phillips, Sergio Gomez and Stefan Ortega to their squad already this summer, are on course to complete another deal before the close of the transfer window.

City have four senior centre-backs in their squad, but injuries to Aymeric Laporte and Nathan Ake have left the Spaniard short in that area, so have decided to move for Akanji after he entered the final 12 months of his contract with Borussia Dortmund.

Who is Akanji?

Akanji is a Switzerland international who has 41 caps under his belt. He represented his country at the World Cup in 2018 and at the last European Championships.

He started his career at local club FC Wiesendangen before he was snapped up by Swiss Super League side FC Winterthur as a youngster.

The centre-back rose up through their academy and was a regular at various youth levels before breaking into their first team. He went on to play 37 games in all competitions before he was signed by FC Basel in April.

He had an impressive time with the Swiss Champions and had admirers throughout Europe, including Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, before sealing a move to Dortmund back in January 2018. Signed at a reported fee of £19.5 million, he started 10 times in the Bundesliga during his first season under new manager Peter Stoger.

With Arsenal snatching Sokratis the following season, Akanji was slowly introduced to the first team and grabbed his opportunity under Lucien Favre. He started 25 times that season and has been one of Dortmund’s important players over the next three years.

Injury History

Akanji suffered a Cruciate Ligament injury during his FC Basel days, which kept him out for over 9 months. Despite a long-term injury, he played an important part in the following seasons, especially during Basel’s UEFA Champions League group stage campaign in 2017.

Although he is certainly not an injury-prone player, he has suffered multiple minor injuries during his time at Dortmund. The 27-year-old even had a knee surgery last season that kept him out for over a month.

Strengths and weaknesses

It’s easy to see why Guardiola fancies the 27-year-old. Standing at 6 feet 1, Akanji is a strong and physical player who does not hide from battles. Akanji played in a high line at Dortmund under various managers since he has the experience of playing for top teams.

As a result of Dortmund’s possession-focused philosophy, Akanji tends to be a heavy contributor to his team’s build-up play. Only five Bundesliga centre-backs who played 1000+ minutes averaged more passes per 90 last season (71.09). Despite this, he still had the second-best pass success rate across the division (92.32 per cent).

Naturally, a lot of those passes were short and safe, yet he does have a capacity to play more progressive balls when opportunities present themselves; he ranked in the top ten of that aforementioned group for progressive passes made per 90.

His comfort in possession will be one of his more valued traits from a City perspective. However, strong defensive capabilities will still be considered important too. In terms of defensive duels, the 27-year-old showed up really well last season. Again from that group of Bundesliga defenders, he ranked second for having the highest average defensive duel success rate (75.74 per cent).

A slight concern though is his ability in the air. Although he stands at 6ft2in, which should give him a height advantage over a lot of attackers he faces, his numbers in terms of aerial duels won are way below what you’d expect. His success rate ranked 60th among the 71 Bundesliga defenders (49.45 per cent).

There is more to defensive skill than what is shown in raw duel success rates, and Akanji’s other good physical traits such as his speed do go someway to compensating for his deficiency in this area.

Conclusion

If ranked against City’s other central defenders, it’s arguably fair to say Akanji operates at a level below and he’s unlikely to challenge the quartet of central defenders already at the club when they’re fully fit. Yet he has a profile that could see him adjust fairly comfortably within the possession-focused system that Guardiola looks to implement, this will be a key reason why he’ll be seen as an ideal backup should he arrive.

He is only behind Aymeric Laporte for progressive distance in terms of passing when estimated against fellow Manchester City center halves (Stones, Dias, Ake). The 27-year-old has also earned a reputation for his switch of plays, which is a valuable asset for Guardiola’s team since Man City like to isolate their winger against fullbacks.