Topic: Premier League Prediction Thread 2021/2022 - page 3094. (Read 787025 times)

Winning is important, but the process leading to victory is far more important. Manchester City had to fight their way into extra time and go to penalties to beat Sevilla to win their fourth title in one season. Manchester City's appearance was a little off balance even though they were able to control the game, losing De Bruyne greatly affected Manchester City's attack, he has always been Guardiola's mainstay because of his skills able to increase Manchester City's goals.

He has always been a differentiator in the Manchester City squad, the beautiful cross that has come from his feet has often ended up being a goal, Haaland is the player who has had the most assists from De Bruyne in scoring. Manchester City is on their best journey, at the moment they are still difficult to contain. The four trophies that have been obtained have further motivated the players to continue their success stories.

I actually do not know how long Kelvin De Bruyne is gonna be sidelined because of the injury he picked last time in the first half of their first English Premier League match of  the season but I trust that Pep Guardiola knows how to perfectly handle his absence from the club.
But if he thinks there's no other player in Manchester City's squad that can replace the injured Belgian, City should then sign another creative midfielder that can do the things he does for the club.

Losing both creative midfield will definitely affect Man City's attack line because there are no accurate passers to reach the attackers. Phil Foden also has good cruising range in midfield but the drawback is not being able to provide a pass as accurately as De Bruyne. Last night's game against Sevilla can serve as a comparison and even though they dominated both possession and attack, Haaland struggled to put himself in a position to score.

Pep Guardiola will definitely try to rotate and I'm sure he wasn't satisfied with Phil Foden's performance against Sevilla because he wasn't able to provide many measured passes to the attackers, so Man City only managed to score one goal through Palmer and Haaland struggled to score because there weren't many measurable bait that reaches him.

Indeed, the absence of Kevin De Bruyne had a major influence on Man City's attacks in building Man City's playing scheme in general. Apart from that, Haaland has also become unproductive, not even showing his best performance in his football career.

In important matches and several big matches he looks infertile, that's because even the opposing team from game to game studies opposing players who they consider predatory. However, this is an advantage for Man City, the opponent will be outnumbered by players and will lose in attack strategy because they will focus on blocking passes to Haaland and guarding more than 1 player. Pep Guardiola took advantage of that, because that's why the second line has always been active in Haaland's shadow in the last few matches. If it's Haaland's problem, maybe Pep Guardiola can handle it, but Kevin De Bruyne's injury problem, Pep Guardiola, doesn't seem to have found a solution. Maybe Pep should immediately find a replacement for Kevin De Bruyne who has the same skills in building Man City attacks.

Pep Guardiola is smart manager and he was success move up several player position as head coach in several teams, when becoming Bayern Munich manager he was success give new position for Joshua Kimmich before as left defender and success with new position as holding midfielder. I believe with Pep magician will be success in Manchester City giving new position for Phil Foden as attacking midfielder than usually his position on winger left or right side. Its seems not many choose on attacking midfielder for Manchester City, current midfielder left have games play as holding midfielder from Mateo Kovacic, Rodri and Kalvin Phillips.

Upcoming next match in Premier League against Newcastle United and looking how possibility with new position for Phil Foden, will be permanent move up as attacking midfielder until Kevin De Bruyne back from injury or Guardiola will use other player as attacking midfielder.

I do agree that City had a bit of a trouble beating Sevilla but in the end they did it anyway and that's all that matters. As long as we are talking about a win, this was a win and how close it was doesn't really matter. Sevilla almost won, it was penalties, a few balls go a few inches left or right and suddenly they are the winners, but that did not happen.

Now that City won, they have 4 cups in a single year, and they have a chance to make it 5 as well with club world cup as well. I do not know how it will go, but I think they will probably do it. That's the important thing, if teams win cups, that returns as money and they can then use that money to win and be better as well and should be able to keep the momentum going.

I don't think anybody will argue about it because it is clear and easy to believe that De Bruyne is a great player and his absence will seriously affect Manchester City's performance. Since I have been watching Manchester City games whenever De-Bruyne is absent in the field, I always quickly witness because that midfield does not always look creative compared to when De-Bruyne is in the field. Foden is also a great young player, but I don't think that he can do the work of DE-Bruyne. In fact, recently, I may say that Foden has lost form compared to how it was the last two seasons, or maybe because he didn't have much playing time last season, and again, the absence of De-Bruyne will also affect Haaland's scoring performance because I have witnessed this season's matches against Arsenal and Sevilla.

The influence of Kevin De Bruyne is very important, and this is why when a team depends on one player, it will be difficult for them to find a replacement because the advantage of Kevin De Bruyne is that it is very difficult to be replaced by other players, which finally made Manchester City's match yesterday not very good. We wish Kevin De Bruyne a speedy recovery and hope he starts giving his best contribution to Manchester City again.Without Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City will find it difficult to win in every match to come.

Foden haven't give any big contribution for Manchester City, I think Pep could sell him and replace with the other player. He's one overrated player because his market value is 105 Million Euros, due to his poor performance, I don't think there's a team would want to spend such huge amount to buy him.

Manchester City is actually in danger, they can lose many points if they can't find the solution about the absence of De Bruyne.

I think they both have their different attributes at Manchester City but it's very right to say Kelvin Debruyne is one of the pillars of Manchester City and they lack a little creativity playing without him, it was proven in the champions league final against intermilan when he was taken off due to an injury and it became tougher for Manchester City to control the Midfield area therefore Intermilan took advantage and started pressing more in the 2nd half of the game,  also if you noticed yesterday's game lacked the presence of Debruyne and it would had been much easier if he were present yesterday because there was no connection from the midfield area to Haaland and that's one of Debruyne's specialities, connecting with Haaland by delivering some brilliant passes to him that most times leads to goal, this is something Foden couldn't do, no doubt he's skillful and has pace and could be very relaible during counter attacks but in matches when they'll be playing against a defensive team like Sevilla they'll need a player that could break into the opposition defense line and deliver good passes from the striker to convert into a goal, Pep Guardiola misses him infact the entire squad misses him and it's time for Pep to restrategise or sign in a new player that offers same attributes as Debruyne to stand in for him in situations of injuries or fatigue.

^^100% agreed... Over these months they have lost two most experienced players in their midfield region- De Bruyne and Gundogan. City plays possession game and these two were great in finding players in tight spaces which really give City a winning edge. I am sure with now KDB gone they will really have tough time finding goals.

KDB injury is gonna be a huge head scratcher for Guardiola now.

KDB is one of, if not the most important City player. Without him they would not have had the trophy laden years they’ve had under Pep. Foden is a top player but make no mistake about it, they are going to miss KDB. A 4 month absence will hurt City, no doubt about it.

It's clear that these two players are different, Kevin De Bruyne is more of a creative midfielder, while Phil Foden is a hole-hunting midfielder. I think in terms of character Kevin De Bruyne is very strong in setting the tempo of the game for his colleagues so he often creates opportunities through the assists he has made to convert as goals. Meanwhile, Phil Foden is more towards midfielders with the ability to dribble past several of his opponents before finally giving assists or shooting the ball directly towards goal. So even though Phil Foden will now start more often as a replacement for Kevin De Bruyne due to injury, I think he needs a lot more adaptation with the other players.

So far it has been difficult to find a suitable replacement for Kevin De Bruyne at Manchester City, but it is not impossible.
Pep Guardiola is a coach figure who is able to optimize the appearance of a player under his care so that I think he can get a suitable replacement for De Bruyne in the future. Of course he needs time, but I think Pep Guardiola can.

Cole Palmer is one who will probably continue to improve under Pep Guardiola. He has a good game as an attacking midfielder, but Cole Palmer is not as good as De Bruyne. Cole Palmer will need time and hard work to reach his high level of play, but only if he is to stay a little longer.

De Bruyne is a better team player compared to Foden. He is thinking of his teammates to score more. I can say that there is a great cooperation between De Bruyne and Haaland in most of their matches. For this reason De Bruyne's absence can affect the productivity of the team in a negative way.

Foden will most probably be the replacement for him now as you also have mentioned. He is a lovely player with great individual skills. Even though he doesn't have the same characteristics with De Bruyne I hope to see him showing a good level of performance in the meantime.

The loss of two mainstay players in the midfield this season has begun to be felt by Manchester City. Gundogan has left the squad while De Bruyne has to step aside, a situation like that certainly makes Pep Guardiola very confused and he must admit that the team's performance is starting to decline. But there is another side that makes City not so worried about the current situation, Kovacic's presence would certainly be the right alternative to overcome this problem and of course Guardiola had to change his scheme a little by placing John Stones as a defensive midfielder and giving roles to Kovacic and Foden as team rhythm controller. I think that scheme will be implemented by Guardiola.

I didn't think that the match would end in a penalty shoot-out, the City squad had difficulty breaking into a team against Sevilla's class. but I can understand, in this match Pep did not play some of his main players. also, Guardiola rotated some of his players. Previously, I thought that Pep would use a 4-2-3-1 system. but apparently, Pep prefers to apply the 4-3-3 pattern plus rotate his players. the absence of De Brunye, Benardo Silva and Alvarez, made it difficult for City to score goals. which in the end, Haaland did not have much influence in this UEFA Super Cup match. he had only one shot blocked from 15 touches, a far cry from his usual form.

Maybe because Pep didn't really care about this match, so Pep didn't play Silva, saving it for the match against Newcaste. As for Alvarez, he was played in the 85th minute. Phil Foden, who usually plays on the wing, Pep rotates him to play in midfield. as a result, this fight did not match my expectations. even before, I predicted that at least City would score 2 goals against Sevilla. unfortunately, it looks like Pep prefers to prepare his team to face Newcastle in the Premier League.

Yes, the results were a draw and even left behind in the first half, but Manchester City was able to reply in the second half and held the draw to a penalty shootout, winning on penalties didn't look that cool but I think they deserved to be champions and get this title, at least City got a few titles after the treble winner and seeing how their squad is playing this season even though there is something that needs to be strengthened, namely their back line.

I know Guardiola still has many ways to concoct a good strategy for the current squad formation where there are several new players who are still in the adaptation process, that's why there are some gaps that can still be exploited by opponents, just saying congratulations to Manchester City for the Super Cup UEFA  

Thats what happens when you defend real good against a side like City. City plays a possession game but if opponent defenders doesn't gives much space then opponents have real shot at winning against City. With now De Bruyne out with injury their productivity while attack has really taken a hit and City are very much vulnerable right now. To be honest City were lucky to have gotten a win finally against Sevilla but Sevilla really pushed them to the edge.

I think this really is a massive problem for Manchester City. Just have a look at the numbers and it can easily be said that Manchster City could be in deep trouble here.

Gundogan had 18 scorer points with 11 goals and 7 assists and De Bruyne (this is really crazy) had 41 scorer points consisting of 31 assists and 10 goals. This is the summary for all competitions, but their contribution as the duo in the midfield was tremendous for their success last year. That means the two players were involved in 59 Manchester City goals. if now all of a sudden both players are gone from their midfield, how is any team in the world successfully compensating for such a loss.