Early days, but in forward pressing, as crazy as it sounds, he may actually be an upgrade on Gabby. Bayern defenders genuinely didn’t know how to handle him last night and were dispossessed or hurried in to a bad pass numerous times. I think I counted five turnovers in the Bayern half from Julian’s pressing alone. And this was largely Bayern’s starting back four. At one point, after Alvarez forced a bad pass that gave us the ball on the edge of their box, they were shouting recriminations at each other. He had them completely out of sorts.
Whether Alvarez can match or surpass Jesus’ attacking contributions is yet to be seen, but I am very excited to see him progress under Pep and co.
