Manchester City must be patient with new signing Julian Alvarez, who has made a promising start to life with his new side. That is the assessment of Riyad Mahrez, who said all four new additions this summer – including Erling Haaland – have impressed the rest of the first team in pre-season so far. While all eyes will be on Haaland as City trained in Houston, Mahrez spoke positively about fellow striker Alvarez, but urged caution over expecting too much from the Argentine too soon.
Riyad Mahrez said: “Training has been good. Very, very hot though. It’s good. It’s a good experience to come here. We’re happy to have a few others in the team to get to know them is good for the team. We’re happy. They’ve all been very good. Erling, Kalvin [Phillips], Stefan [Ortega], Julian very good and they start to get to know us and to get used to the team and training, it’s good. We make them very comfortable and so they can settle very quickly.”
As well as four new players, there have been two significant transfers out of City, with Raheem Sterling joining Chelsea and Gabriel Jesus going to Arsenal. But while Mahrez admits they will be big losses, he looked towards the future regarding his own role in the team and also spoke highly of Alvarez’s training performances.
Riyad Mahrez said: “Obviously, they are two big losses. They were very important players for us. And we’ll just wish them good luck and we’re gonna go with the new players and try to do a great season. Always I had an important role in the team and I hope that will be the same. Julian is a very good striker. The strength, he has good qualities. But in the beginning you cannot judge him. You have to give him time. He’s very good from what we’ve seen.”
Mahrez was speaking at a community event in Houston, where he spent time playing football with local children with special needs, along with Aleks Zinchenko, Kayky, Oscar Bobb, Finley Burns, Rico Lewis and Ben Knight.
Riyad Mahrez said: “It’s amazing, I got to see these kids and play with them to make them happy. It’s really rewarding, when we were young we were the same, we’d see footballers. They’re very happy, I know what they can feel now.”
