Four Mateo Kovacic passes already prove he's what Pep Guardiola needs in Man City midfield

The most important aspect of a typical Manchester City goal under Pep Guardiola is not always the goal or the assist, but the pass that allows both of those actions to happen as seamlessly as possible.

The idea of a 'pre-assist' is often scoffed upon, although it does highlight the role of a player making a decisive forward pass, taking multiple defenders out of the game, and doing the hardest part in a move.

City have been scoring this kind of goals for years under Guardiola. They move the ball around from side to side in the opposition half, waiting for a space to open up. When it is the right time, a midfielder will play the ball forwards rather than sideways into the run of a winger or full-back making a dart to the byline or into the box.

Instead of shooting, that player knows to cut the ball back for at least one player waiting in the centre. More often than not, that player is Erling Haaland, but it has been countless others in the past. The scorer takes the acclaim, the assister boosts their numbers, but the player who made it all happen is often overlooked.

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It's maybe a little bit simplistic to say that Ilkay Gundogan was more of a pre-assister than a scorer in these situations as he had a knack of timing a run into the box and scoring. Still, he also knew when to pull the trigger and set a teammate into the area - someone like Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling or Bernardo Silva.

With Gundogan departing this summer, others have had to take the mantle of deciding when to make that forward pass rather than keep the ball going from left to right. Bernardo Silva has the ability, but is needed on the right, and