Manchester City ‘laying the groundwork’ for Atalanta midfielder signing – Liverpool previously linked

Officials at Manchester City have reportedly been ‘laying the groundwork’ for a deal to sign one of Serie A’s most best defensive midfield profiles, according to reports.

Pep Guardiola and his Etihad Stadium colleagues are currently undergoing the task of filling the role left behind by Rodri after the Spaniard sustained a serious knee injury to rule him out for the remainder of the ongoing season.

With Manchester City holding firm ambitions of retaining their top-level success and challenging for the very biggest honours in the game, the role of defensive midfield is integral to such goals and ambitions for the campaign.

In the last few matches, Pep Guardiola has already trialled a number of options including the likes of Mateo Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan operating alongside the likes of Rico Lewis and Manuel Akanji stepping forward out of the back-four.

But there remains the potential for Manchester City to look into the January transfer window for potential reinforcements, having largely failed to sufficiently reinforce their midfield during the summer market.

Now, according to the information of Football Insider’s Pete O’Rourke, Manchester City have been ‘laying the groundwork’ for a deal to sign Atalanta midfielder, Éderson having identified the Brazilian as a replacement for Rodri.

Numerous clubs have previously been credited with interest in the midfielder during the most-recent summer transfer window, including Manchester City’s Premier League title rivals Liverpool.

Éderson is a regular starter in Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta midfield, taking on 10 appearances across all competitions so far this season scoring one goal and providing three assists in the process.

Those matches have in turn taken Ederson’s tally at Atalanta to 100 with nine goals and four assists, having only joined the Serie A club from US Salernitana 1919 in July 2022.

Ederson started his professional career at Desportivo Brasil, before moving to Cruzeiro, Corinthians and Fortaleza recording more than 100 appearances overall, and scoring seven goals before making the switch to Italian football in January 2022.