Manchester City has enjoyed a tremendous start to their season. Pep Guardiola has begun his career in the Premier League with 10 consecutive victories. It seemed like nothing could stop the Citizens. That was until Saturday’s meeting with Swansea City. In the 3-1 victory over the Welsh club, midfielder Kevin De Bruyne came off with an injury. Sunday, his club confirmed that the Belgian would miss up to four weeks with a hamstring injury.
Guardiola is no stranger to muscle injuries. They always seemed to creep up on his teams at Barcelona and Bayern. Maybe it’s just bad luck, but the injury bug has bitten his teams in recent years. Losing De Bruyne will be particularly annoying as the star midfielder has been one of City’s best players. With the English club set for a busy month, the early season form could be in danger of coming apart.
Manchester City has the depth to deal with De Bruyne’s absence. İlkay Gündoğan and David Silva are capable replacements, though both players lack De Bruyne’s vision. Gündoğan is more of a box-to-box midfielder, as opposed to an attacking guru. Guardiola has never been overly fond of box-to-box players, but Gündoğan is very talented and should make life a little easier.
Silva might be a more natural fit for the position, but he’s declined a little. The Spaniard has only one assist so far this campaign, compared to De Bruyne’s four but a large reason for that is simply because the team is driven by the Belgian’s foot, not Silva’s.
Kevin De Bruyne has 33 assists since the start of 2014/15; only Lionel Messi has more (36) in Europe's top 5 leagues over that period. pic.twitter.com/VvG4TYgxma
— Squawka (@Squawka) September 24, 2016
City will have a hard time replacing De Bruyne’s assist number. Since 2014, only Lionel Messi has provided more assists than De Bruyne. This stat has been tremendously important to Sergio Aguero. The Argentine has been unable to stop scoring this season, and the man playing behind him on the pitch is a large reason for that.
[link_box id=”23195″ site_id=”158″ layout=”link-box-third” alignment=”alignright”]De Bruyne’s ability to break down defenses is important in Guardiola’s system. He’s the perfect player for the kind of game the Spaniard plays. When Aguero was suspended, Kelechi Iheanacho stepped up and proved an admirable understudy. De Bruyne helped.
The coming month is going to be difficult for Manchester City. This week’s meeting with Celtic is a game City should be able to win with little effort whether or not De Bruyne was in the lineup. The following weeks tell a different story. Sunday the club heads to London to take on Tottenham, a side sitting right behind City in second place. Following that is a string of games against Everton, Barcelona, Southampton and Manchester United. None of those games will be a walk in the park. De Bruyne might be back for the Manchester Derby, but if not that could be a tricky fixture. Best case scenario, De Bruyne will be back but not at 100%.
De Bruyne has come a long way from the player Jose Mourinho sent packing in 2014. In just two years, the 25-year-old has become one of the best players in the world. His presence on the pitch is important for City. His knee injury last season disrupted the club’s rhythm. City finished fourth last year. This season the Club have built up a nice lead in the Premier League and have looked intimidating in the process. Losing De Bruyne hurts, but it might not be fatal. The next four weeks will give a good indication just how deep this squad is and just how in tune they are with their manager’s vision.
In a month we’ll know if this was just a bump in the road, or if City go as De Bruyne goes.
