Manchester City miss Kevin de Bruyne – they must hope their patient approach to his rehabilitation bears fruit
Remember when Manchester City won at Stamford Bridge last season? City were dominating Antonio Conte’s Chelsea, pinning them back, but they could not break through their lines and score that crucial opening goal. When the goal finally came it was from Kevin De Bruyne, smacking the ball into the top corner of the net from 20 yards out. It was classic De Bruyne: decisive, powerful and precise.
That was the stage of last season when De Bruyne looked like the best player in the country and was scoring goals like this almost every week. His physical energy, running up and down the middle of the pitch, helped City to cut through teams. And his ability to grab games by the neck often bailed City out when they needed an answer.
Of course De Bruyne has barely played this season. Half an hour off the bench on opening day against Arsenal, then a 10-week knee injury. Then two sub appearances, two starts, and then another knee injury. That was five weeks ago and De Bruyne is set for another return to action this month.
City are trying to be patient with De Bruyne, gradually building up his fitness, wary of the fact that he has not had a pre-season. He is pencilled in to make his return before Christmas, although the last thing City want is for him to come back too soon and risk a third injury in a season that has already been half-ruined.
Although watching City patiently pass around Chelsea today but to lack that audacity and power and spark that De Bruyne gives them, it did prompt the thought that this was the first game when they have really needed someone. Because playing David Silva and Bernardo Silva in the middle gives you wonderful ball skills and technical control, but neither quite has the explosiveness of De Bruyne, whether in his long-range shooting, his diagonal passing or his gallops down the middle of the pitch.
Guardiola was asked after the game if City had missed De Bruyne and he legitimately pointed out that given that this was City’s first defeat of the season, they could not be said to have missed him too badly.
Sergio Aguero had been absent too, forcing Guardiola to play Raheem Sterling as a number nine, and City are certainly less sharp in converting possession into goals without their greatest ever goalscorer on the pitch.
“What happened when they were not here? We won every game. Of course I would like to be with Sergio [Aguero], with Kevin, but the guys did an incredible performance today. We won with them and the guys today who were there were incredible.”
But Guardiola did point to that ability De Bruyne has to speed things up in the middle of the pitch, as he did last season. “Last season, Kevin played the ball, pass pass pass,” he said. “That little action today, we miss it a little bit.”
The good news for City is that when De Bruyne comes back, they will be able to rotate more in midfield, to keep Fernandinho and the Silvas sharper, as they push on in multiple fronts in the first half of 2019. But the sooner he gets back the better, because even a team as good as City will miss a player that decisive. Just as they did on Saturday.
