Will Marmoush Be A Success At Manchester City?

After scoring his first goals for the club at the weekend against Newcastle, Omar Marmoush and Manchester City were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid in midweek. There were no City players on the pitch that covered themselves in glory in the second leg, with Kylian Mbappe scoring three goals before Nico Gonzalez got a consolation late on.

Marmoush’s time at City has been quite good so far, but up until last week he hadn’t contributed numbers to their attack. So was last week a one off, or does he actually have what it takes to be a success in Manchester?

Marmoush’s Role

The position that Marmoush has taken up so far at Manchester City has been quite different to where he has played for Eintracht Frankfurt this season. For the German side, Marmoush was often the focal striker for the attack playing as a number nine, or occasionally a second striker.

That position at Manchester City has been more difficult to get into thanks to a certain Norwegian by the name of Erling Haaland. Instead the Egyptian has been playing off the left hand side, often cutting in to provide Haaland with a teammate alongside him in attack. Against both Chelsea and Arsenal in the Premier League, he tended to stick to his position down the left side, and proved ineffective, especially against the Gunners. Against Newcastle however, he dragged Kieran Trippier all over the pitch, running in behind the defensive line to cause problems. He scored a first half hat trick and single handedly gave City the win.

This view of Omar Marmoush's first @ManCity goal 🤩

He scored a hat-trick in their 4-0 win against Newcastle, to move back into the top fourpic.twitter.com/tyUpieM0wM

— Premier League (@premierleague) February 17, 2025

Manchester City have a few other players who can play in Marmoush’s role that are probably frustrated by the club’s acquisition of such a player. Jack Grealish is the obvious one, as the Englishman cost City £100m in the summer of 2021. He has only scored twice this season, neither coming in the Premier League, and may be looking for an opportunity elsewhere in the summer.

Jeremy Doku is the other option off the left hand side, however he is perfectly capable on both flanks. A couple of injuries have slowed his season down a bit this year, but he still has three goals and four assists in the league already. Doku differs from Marmoush as he is more of a creative player, while Marmoush is more gifted in front of goal.

Other Bundesliga Signings

Premier League signings from the Bundesliga have been very hit or miss in recent years. The most expensive purchase made by a Premier League in the Bundesliga ever was made by Manchester City when they signed Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig. He has been really good in the Premier League since he joined, both offensively and defensively.

While Gvardiol was a good buy, the two most expensive signings made by Premier League clubs in Marmoush’s position were Jaidon Sancho to Manchester United and Kai Havertz to Chelsea. Havertz may have won the Champions League for the Blues, and may be doing well now at Arsenal, but ultimately he flopped at Chelsea as did Sancho at United.

Did Manchester United scam us with Jadon Sancho ? pic.twitter.com/os895bAXSw

— Janty (@CFC_Janty) February 14, 2025

Eintracht Frankfurt’s biggest sale to a Premier League club after Marmoush was Sebastien Haller to West Ham United in the 2019/20 season. He didn’t do too well at the London based club and their fans weren’t impressed, so he eventually left for less than half of what they paid.

Obviously each player is different both in their abilities and their luck with injuries and so we can’t look into this too much. What is certain, is that Pep Guardiola is a fan of Marmoush and that the Egyptian certainly has the ability to be a real success in the Premier League.