Kevin De Bruyne‘s superb performance led Manchester City through one of their most iconic wins ever against Real Madrid on Wednesday. Now he will lead Manchester City into Wembley looking for the seasons’ first trophy. City’s opponent will be Aston Villa, a historic English club who are in the midst of a hugely important relegation fight. Which will give De Bruyne plenty of place to shine.
Kevin De Bruyne Key For Manchester City in Carabao Cup Final
Creative Dominance
We have known all season that De Bruyne is back to his best. The Belgian playmaker is in the midst of his best statistical season since his move to Manchester City in 2015. De Bruyne already has his most goals in a season for City and is leading all of Europe in assists. But those numbers hardly do justice to his importance.
Pep Guardiola has made De Bruyne the central figure of this Manchester City season. The other Guardiola seasons at City are defined by two creative midfielders and a barrage on the byline. Now De Bruyne plays in front of true double-pivot and has the license to create all over the field. The Belgian has popped with crosses and through balls from all angles of the pitch and developed some interesting fans.
The game against Real Madrid is the perfect example. De Bruyne was given free rein over his position. He sometimes found himself as City’s furthest forward player, and he excelled at it. His dribbling and cross from the left side on Gabriel Jesus’s headed goal just a few minutes after he had unleashed a shot from the right side of midfield.
It is pretty likely that Guardiola will give De Bruyne many of the same freedoms again on Sunday. And in a game against Aston Villa at Wembley some of the same ideas that worked in Madrid on Wednesday could work again.
Predicting The Game
Aston Villa could come out like a house of fire on Sunday. Their first 20 minutes might come with more intensity than Real Madrid. This is their chance, and it comes early enough that it shouldn’t affect their relegation battle. Wild tackles, aggressive shots and overactive play are what will meet City on the pitch at Wembley.
There are two ways for Guardiola and Man City to combat that; either fight fire with fire or play as they did in Madrid. Everybody watching should hope they try to out pressure Villa early on. The extra chaos could have some fantastic results. And players like De Bruyne would certainly relish every chance to get at this Villa defence.
Villa have the worst defence in the Premier League, giving up 52 goals in 27 Premier League games, 59 in all competitions. So it is easy to expect City to be licking their lips against one of the worst defences in Europe.
What Manchester City Will Do
Baring in mind Villa’s defensive problems, Guardiola will set City up to go for their opponents as much as they can. Expect to see Sergio Aguero and possibly Raheem Sterling restored to the starting lineup. Sterling could lose out to Jesus, who has earned another start after his performance in Madrid. Apart from De Bruyne, Jesus was easily City’s best player on Wednesday.
Otherwise, it’s almost a guarantee that Rodrigo and Ilkay Gundogan will start together. Manchester City has been so much better at controlling the play with those two in the starting lineup. The only other changes from those who finished the game in Madrid might be Joao Cancelo, who could be dusted off as he was the last time these teams played.
In that last game, City played without the double pivot in an open wild 6-1 thrashing of Villa. Aguero, Jesus, and Riyad Mahrez all scored in that game, and to be honest it will be hard for Villa to stop that from happening again.
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