English giants chasing Frankfurt star – How would Man City line up with Omar Marmoush?

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Set to sign? 

©TM/IMAGO

Manchester City’s desperate attempts to get their  Premier League campaign back on track may come down to negotiating one of the biggest transfers in this month’s transfer window. As multiple reports have suggested, the reigning English champions are intent on signing  Eintracht Frankfurt forward  Omar Marmoush before the end of the month. However, there are now some major doubts over the English club’s capacity to land their Egyptian transfer target, unless they’re willing to match what Frankfurt are demanding for the player’s signature. 

Rumour

O. Marmoush

Centre-Forward

E. Frankfurt		72 %		Man City
Bundesliga				Premier League

According to the Daily Mail, Man City had initially hoped to sign Marmoush for as little as €47 million, but have since seen their offer rise to €71m in a bid to appease Frankfurt’s demands. Having played for the Bundesliga club on Tuesday night, Marmoush showed no signs of having his head turned, when he bagged one goal and two assists in their 4-2 win over Freiburg. And after the match, Frankfurt’s decision-makers were remarkably coy on the matter of their star player leaving the club. ‘I’ve already said that there is interest from a club, and there’s nothing more to say at the moment,” said Frankfurt CEO Markus Krösche. “There is no other situation. We’ll see what the future holds in the next few days. And as long as he’s an Eintracht Frankfurt player and continues to perform, he’ll play.” 

What type of player is Omar Marmoush? 

Marmoush made the move to German football in 2017, when he joined  Wolfsburg’s youth academy from Wadi Degla. Due to his speed and dribbling ability, he spent the next five years struggling to make an impact on loan at  St Pauli and then Stuttgart, before Wolfsburg eventually allowed him to leave the club for free in the summer of 2023. He was then signed by Frankfurt and only at his new club did the Bundesliga really see what the Egyptian forward was capable of. Since joining the Eagles, Marmoush has played predominantly as a central, attacking player. In his 67 games across all competitions for Frankfurt, Marmoush has played as a left winger just five times, while playing as a No.10 on 10 occasions and as a centre forward in 52 games. To no great surprise, the 25-year-old talent has found a huge amount of success as a more traditional forward, where he has bagged 30 goals and 15 assists in 52 games for Frankfurt in that position. In stark contrast, during his time at Wolfsburg, Marmoush only featured as a striker in 20 of his 48 games for the club and as a result managed just six goals and one assist across all competitions. As such, if Marmoush does make a move to Man City this month, he’ll almost certainly play in a more central role for  Pep Guardiola’s side. 

How would Omar Marmoush fit in at Man City?

With that in mind, Marmoush’s proposed move to Man City somewhat limits where he would likely play in Guardiola’s team in the second half of the season. Rather than play as a left winger as some have suggested, the Egyptian forward would likely be more useful to his new club through the middle as a second striker playing off of  Erling Haaland in the box. In a sense, Marmoush would be making the move to the Premier League side as a natural successor to Julian Alvarez, who departed the club in the summer transfer window to join Atlético Madrid, but was an exceptionally useful goal threat when tasked with playing in the pocket between Haaland and Man City’s midfield. For example, in his final season at the club, Alvarez bagged 19 goals and 13 assists in all competitions, with 31 of his 54 appearances for the club coming in the second striker role or in other positions across the front three. And if Marmoush could play that role just as well, while also providing ample cover for Haaland as a more traditional No.9, then he may be exactly what Guardiola’s side need to get their league campaign back on track.