The stats behind Manchester City's interest in Barcelona's Umtiti

After missing out on Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool, French newspaper L’Equipe are now suggesting Manchester City are eyeing an audacious move for Barcelona centre-back Samuel Umtiti.

City are still active in four competitions this season and Pep Guardiola wants to sign a new centre-back to improve their chances of being successful in every competition. This is not a fresh concern, but one Guardiola was not able to address in the summer.

They failed to get a deal over the line for West Brom defender Jonny Evans at the start of the season and the former Manchester United defender remains a viable option this month.

Real Sociedad’s Inigo Martinez has also been linked with a move to the Etihad, but Umtiti is the latest option being considered and he would certainly be the best signing they could make out of the current names being thrown about.

Losing Umtiti is simply not an option for Barcelona, particularly as Javier Mascherano’s time at the club is coming to an end. Gerard Pique will turn 31 at the start of next month and Barcelona rightly view Umtiti as the future of their defence.

However, they could be powerless in keeping Umtiti at the Camp Nou, as they were with Neymar in the summer. Barcelona included a €60m (£52.3m) release clause in Umtiti’s contract when he joined from Lyon in July 2016, which looked reasonable at the time.

Transfer fees have escalated so much since then that €60m would represent fantastic value for any club interested in signing a defender of Umtiti’s calibre, while City were actually willing to pay more than that to sign Van Dijk.

Many will argue Umtiti is superior to Van Dijk and that is why Barcelona are sweating so much on sorting the Frenchman’s contract and at least improving Umtiti’s release clause to represent his true market worth.

In fact, Barcelona boast a win ratio of 88.9% in La Liga with Umtiti in the starting XI, compared to 52.6% from the 19 matches he has failed to featured in from the off. Considering Barcelona don't usually drop many points, it’s a staggering difference and illustrates his importance to their defence.

Umtiti is also very efficient in possession, which would certainly suit the way Guardiola sets out his team. In fact, of players that have started at least 10 La Liga matches this season, only Real Betis defender Aissa Mandi (92.3%) has a better pass success rate than Umtiti (92.2%).

The problem for Guardiola is that Umtiti would have to be a guaranteed starter and that could upset the dressing room harmony, which the City manager is mindful of this month following their breathtaking start to the season.