De Bruyne, Silva and Fernandinho must show Man City are not out of title race
Boss Pep Guardiola has not been able to play the three consistently this season due to injury
IT’S a squad game now, of course.
It’s all about tinkering, resting, rotating, juggling egos, keeping everyone out of the burn-out ‘red zone’ and having the strongest bench.
That’s how you win a Premier League title in the modern era, right?
Well, not really no.
It still tends to be about knowing your best XI, keeping them fit and starting them for the vast majority of games.
That’s even true for Manchester City, with the most expensive squad ever assembled in English football.
And particularly in midfield, where for all the oil in Abu Dhabi, power rests with the club’s undisputed holy trinity of Fernandinho, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva.
Largely due to De Bruyne’s two knee injuries, this tick-tock trio have not started together once in the league this term.
And City boss Pep Guardiola will be desperate to have his Belgian back so those three can be reunited in Thursday’s blockbuster against leaders Liverpool.
Indeed, the one time the trio have all played together — in a 3-0 Champions League away win against Shakhtar Donetsk — Guardiola’s men played their most attractive and effective football of the season.
Latest Manchester City News
There will be no bleeding-heart violin music for a club with City’s resources but the fact is that this fun-boy three are pivotal for Guardiola.
When none of them started against Crystal Palace before Christmas, City suffered a 3-2 home reverse, their most surprising league defeat in years.
De Bruyne is a doubt for Thursday due to a muscular problem but if Guardiola could field him alongside David Silva, in front of anchorman Fernandinho, for the remaining 18 league games, it would give City their best chance of catching Jurgen Klopp’s Reds.
De Bruyne, Silva and Fernandinho started each of City’s first 13 matches last term as they built up a commanding lead and only when they were split up, predominantly due to the extremely premature birth of Silva’s son, did City begin to wobble.
Recent title-winning campaigns still tend to be built on consistency of selection and avoidance of key injuries.
During Leicester’s 2015-16 triumph, Foxes chief Claudio Ranieri was a tinkerman no more. Ten players made at least 30 starts with an 11th, Shinji Okazaki, selected 28 times.
When Chelsea won the league under Antonio Conte, his 3-4-3 was clearly defined with ten men making at least 29 starts and only Pedro and Willian truly interchangeable on the right wing.
Klopp’s Liverpool are doing it very differently. While Gini Wijnaldum is anchoring the midfield three each match, Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Fabinho and Naby Keita have been rotating.
It smacks of the modern tinkering which you might casually assume all big clubs do. But the absence of one truly commanding world-class midfielder might just be a potential weakness as an unbeaten Liverpool head down the stretch in imperious form.
Guardiola would fancy a fully-fit and firing Fernandinho, Silva and De Bruyne to boss the middle of the park even against Klopp’s men.
And City must surely win on Thursday, to narrow the gap to four points, if we are to enjoy a genuine title race rather than a Red procession.
It feels like it has been a while since the Premier League has thrown up a proper ‘game to stop the nation’.
Not in the way Manchester United v Arsenal was a must-watch in the Ferguson-Wenger, Keane-Vieira heyday or when Fergie’s boys took on Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle before that.
Now, though, we have a clearly-defined top two — Guardiola’s symphonica against Klopp’s Metallica.
It is Pep-Klopp, rather than Pep-Jose, which is the defining rivalry of this age.
And after the City team bus was damaged by Liverpool fans en route to an Anfield thrashing in last season’s Champions League quarter-final, there is genuine needle too.
For all Liverpool’s remorselessness though, City should still rate themselves as the superior team.
And if Guardiola can unite his midfield threesome once more, City might yet prove it this season.
Racism shame
Mour like it at United
Les we forget
Neil graps Prem nettle
Ab's not fab
Now the Italian must back up his words by freezing this liability out of his squad.
HARRY KANE, Member of the British Empire, captain of England, World Cup Golden Boot winner . . . and embarrassing diver.
Well done to referee Stuart Attwell for saying it as he saw it and booking the Tottenham striker for diving against Wolves.
Many would have refereed on reputation and given Kane a free pass.
THE decision of Susanna Dinnage to turn down the Premier League’s chief executive role, two months after accepting it, suggests the canny Richard Scudamore might be getting out in the nick of time.
As viewing habits become increasingly diverse, could the League’s phenomenal TV rights bubble be about to go pop?
Dinnage might well have assumed so.