Kevin De Bruyne

Thought he looked wrecked and out of his feet after 70 minutes tonight, lucky he was hooked. Scored in 3 CL semi finals in a row now and I'm sure people will still try to say he hasn't delivered in big games.
 
I thought he was pretty poor relatively(especially compared to some other City performers) but still bagged 2 assists.

He's nailed on to provide a cross for a Haaland goal in the final too.
 
City are going to struggle this year. Seeing their bench vs Burnley, they really have no strength in depth in attack so losing Gundogan and Mahrez was rather foolish.
 
City are going to struggle this year. Seeing their bench vs Burnley, they really have no strength in depth in attack so losing Gundogan and Mahrez was rather foolish.
League wide open now. They’ve lost a lot of creativity going forward, they don’t have the squad advantage anymore.
 
League wide open now. They’ve lost a lot of creativity going forward, they don’t have the squad advantage anymore.
For sure. Losing the goals and assists you get from Mahrez, Kdb and Gundogan requires a major investment in the team. Them continuing to splurge in defense, where they already have several options while ignoring their attack is strange really.

They now have Haaland, Alvarez, Graelish and Foden to score and create goals. It's just extremely heavily reliant on Haaland who also won't have the service of Kdb.
 
Huge year for Foden coming up. I expect we’ll finish the transfer window up with some signings too. Paqueta and Doku if you believe the rumours.

KDB back just in time for the run in and our annual 10 game winning streak.
 
Does anyone feel like they rushed him back? I figured it might be a few months out after the CL final. I didn’t expect him to be fully ready for GW1.
 
Arsenal are winning the league aren't they.

I guess it's better than City winning 4 in a row.
 
Huge year for Foden coming up. I expect we’ll finish the transfer window up with some signings too. Paqueta and Doku if you believe the rumours.

KDB back just in time for the run in and our annual 10 game winning streak.
Think they will be fine. Foden or Silva will be there as their main AM, and they will also sign Paqueta as their main midfield reinforcement. They also have plenty of options on the right with Alvarez, Silva, Palmer and possibly Doku playing there.
 
Huge year for Foden coming up. I expect we’ll finish the transfer window up with some signings too. Paqueta and Doku if you believe the rumours.

KDB back just in time for the run in and our annual 10 game winning streak.

More chances for Alvarez to play with Haaland now?
 
Think they will be fine. Foden or Silva will be there as their main AM, and they will also sign Paqueta as their main midfield reinforcement. They also have plenty of options on the right with Alvarez, Silva, Palmer and possibly Doku playing there.
its definitely a drop down from Mahrez and Gundogan and the others (mainly Arsenal) should be hopeful
 
He is always the difference maker in my opinion, I don't think Arsenal have enough goals in the team (they need a CF still for me) but at least City might drop some points and make things interesting.
 
I was thinking a week or so ago, City without KDB and Haaland are pedestrian. Last few months of the last season they were so laborious in their play, like running on fumes.

This injury will practically leave the title race wide open.
 
I was thinking a week or so ago, City without KDB and Haaland are pedestrian. Last few months of the last season they were so laborious in their play, like running on fumes.

This injury will practically leave the title race wide open.
Last few months? I'll give you last 2 games, those being the FA Cup Final and the Champions League Final. But before that, the squad players had played at Brentford, Brighton was a great of football and then prior to that you had games like Madrid and Arsenal at home which are up there with the finest performances I've seen from a City side.

We'll miss De Bruyne but we've been very lucky with not having too many "major" injuries in the past couple of seasons. We'll recruit but it's difficult to replace a player of his standard so Foden et al need to step up into that role and score and create more.
 
Wasn't he injured a lot during the 20/21 season and missed many games but City still won the league quite easily? They'll be fine.
 
Does anyone feel like they rushed him back? I figured it might be a few months out after the CL final. I didn’t expect him to be fully ready for GW1.

He said himself he didn't expect to play vs Burnley so possible.

So much time out, not sure he'll be the same player when he comes back.
 
Wasn't he injured a lot during the 20/21 season and missed many games but City still won the league quite easily? They'll be fine.

He missed even more games in the 18/19 season and they won the league(arguably their best league side too).
 
It’s a massive blow for them. None of the alternatives have KDB’s quality. Like Neville said, if Haaland was to start suffering injuries again that really could make it interesting.
 
Does anyone feel like they rushed him back? I figured it might be a few months out after the CL final. I didn’t expect him to be fully ready for GW1.
I do. Did he really have to play in the community shield?

Apparently he said he felt fine, but surely the medics should have known he wasn’t at all fit.
Problem for KDB is his age. He seems to have been injured a lot recently and his body might just be packing up. He needs to be played less and they’ll need a replacement and his are big boots to fill.

Glad we won’t have to face him in October and Haaland will miss him too.
 
He looked really up for it, as expected.
Added bonus Doku also back, and Haaland right around the corner