Julian Alvarez joins Erling Haaland at Dream Team’s summit as Pep Guardiola dubs Argentine forward “almost undroppable”

Julian Alvarez (£4.3m) played second fiddle to Erling Haaland (£8.2m) in his debut season for Manchester City.

This campaign, the pair have dovetailed as a fruitful equals to take Dream Team by storm.

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The prolific Norwegian has continued as the spearhead of Pep Guardiola’s winning machine and while he’s not been at his clinical best, he still has seven goals to his name after six outings.

As for the Argentina international, he’s flourished in the No10 role, where he’s been able to flex his creative muscles while also providing an additional goal threat.

And it was Alvarez who inspired City’s inevitable comeback victory against Crvena zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) on Tuesday night with a second-half brace.

The 23-year-old bagged 21 points for his efforts to add to the eight he earned against West Ham at the weekend.

This 29-point Gameweek haul has rocketed him up the rankings into second overall, fittingly tucked in just behind Haaland.

Alvarez now has 59 points in total, nine fewer than Haaland, having scored four goals and provided five assists in six games.

Having frequently been named as a substitute last season, few Dream Team bosses would have predicted that the World Cup winner would play every minute of every game across the first five Gameweeks (the Super Cup was not a Dream Team eligible fixture).

Kevin De Bruyne’s (£6.7m) injury has played into his hands to some degree and with Jack Grealish (£4.4m) and now Bernardo Silva (£3.6m) also sidelined, Alvarez’s minutes are all but assured for the foreseeable future.

More than anything, it’s his form that has made him one of the first names on team sheet.

Guardiola even went as far as to describe Alvarez as “almost undroppable” at the weekend – and that was before he produced the goods again in the Champions League.

The general concern for Dream Team managers regarding City assets is that they might suddenly fall foul of Pep Roulette and find themselves on the bench so when the man himself describes one of his players as “almost undroppable” that’s as much of a green light as one could hope for.

Right now, a front three of Haaland, Alvarez and Mohamed Salah (£6.6m) looks extremely appealing – although credit where it’s due to Odsonne Edouard (£2.8m).

It’s rare that a Dream Team asset categorised as a striker is such a strong option when they’re playing in a deeper role and are clearly not their team’s primary goal threat but the nature of Man City’s supremacy creates such quirks.

Where before it was Haaland or Alvarez, now it’s Haaland and Alvarez.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk