Erling Haaland is the best young number nine in the world right now, and the man who is below him in the Manchester City pecking order isn't bad either.
During the 2022 World Cup, Julian Alvarez proved just how good he is, scoring four goals and helping his nation to their first triumph in the tournament since 1986.
Now set to re-join City after the hefty celebrations back in Buenos Aires it's seemingly going to be impossible for Pep Guardiola to not find a way to find Alvarez into his starting XI moving forward.
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So to help Pep out a bit, we at 90min have decided to work out a few ways which both Haaland and Alvarez can co-exist in a starting lineup for Man City.
Pep, you're welcome mate.
4-3-3
Foden - Haaland - Alvarez
Silva - Rodri - De Bruyne
The most obvious way to get both into the lineup is to fire Julian Alvarez out wide and stick Erling Haaland up top as the number nine.
It's something that Pep has tried a few times this season, and the sheer volume of work that Alvarez gets through when pressing opposition means that he is comfortable out wide - even if he'd probably rather play up top.
4-4-2
Alvarez - Haaland
Foden - De Bruyne - Rodri - Silva
Ok, we know that Guardiola isn't going to go full Mike Bassett and play a straight up 4-4-2.
It's just not going to happen.
BUT, and hear us out Pep, there is scope to play a 4-4-2 with essentially four central midfielders who can rotate in-field and out wide to cause opposition a myriad of problems and create chances for Alvarez and Haaland up top. All those central midfielders sounds good, doesn't it Pep?
4-2-4
Grealish - Alvarez - Haaland - Mahrez
De Bruyne - Rodri
This formation would be an acknowledgement by Manchester City of the fact that they don't really need to worry about defending. The opposition never has the ball, defending is usually not something they have to do to.
So with that in mind, why not just play four up top and double down on dominating the final third? They might as well.
4-3-1-2
Alvarez - Haaland
Foden
Gundogan - Rodri - De Bruyne
If it was 1995, Man City played in Serie A, and Pep Guardiola smoked like a chimney, then this would be how you'd play Alvarez and Haaland together.
In this narrow formation Man City would be able to:
A) Play Foden in his natural position.
B) Give Joao Cancelo fully agency of creating from out wide.
C) Play Haaland and Alvarez together in their preferred positions.
D) Pep is still able to play all the central midfielders.
It's perfect.
Source : 90min