Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne returned from injury in time to inspire the side to a 4-0 demolition of Bournemouth. But Manuel Pellegrini isn’t taking any chances.
In life, very little is certain. Instead, we make calculations based on high probabilities which would indicate, or at least point towards, likely and predictable outcomes. It’s not raining in Manchester right now? Most likely it’s about to start. Something unexpected in the post box this morning? Enjoy your junk mail, bills or both. Wilfried Bony in scoring position? Don’t go updating that Manchester City score sheet just yet. Sure, there’s a relatively good chance that the above won’t happen, but those are the exceptions and we gravitate to the norm.
So it is, in all seriousness, Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has suggested that, rather than fielding his best team off the bat for the Champions League quarter-final against PSG, star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne wouldn’t be a gimme to play. De Bruyne was out for two months, two months in which City lost 4 league games out of 6, only to promptly return on Saturday and help himself to a goal, 4 shots on target and the man of the match award in City’s 4-0 thumping of Bournemouth.
You don’t need to understand anything about football to see how badly De Bruyne was missed, so even Alex Ferguson could get it. Why can’t Pellegrini? Well, it seems, the concern is that even a young player with De Bruyne’s talent can be reintroduced too soon and only end up reinjured again. As reported by Sky Sports, Pellegrini had this to say
"“We are going to see, because now we can start preparing for that game.“But we’ve seen the way he played at Bournemouth and now we have to see how he recovers. We’ll assess that and then decide.“Of course it’s a boost that he’s in contention though, because he’s a very important player.”"
Now, it should be obvious to everyone, PSG included, that if De Bruyne is deemed good to go he will go. Pulling the old bait and switch by leaving off arguably one of your best players may make some kind of crazy sense in Football Manager, but for the real deal it’s stupid and about as unlikely as Pellegrini taking his spot on the pitch instead.
Pellegrini is likely taking into account what happened, repeatedly, with Vincent Kompany this season. Another player we’ve badly missed, the skipper was reintroduced quickly after his injuries subsided on two occasions and on both was reinjured again just as quickly. De Bruyne, all the more so, is a long term investment for Manchester City, being only 24 and having many years of his prime yet to come. So it makes sense there would be a little bit of added caution here.
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Even so, it’s pretty dumb to suggest there’s a chance De Bruyne’s not going to play. There’s no indication, indeed far from it, that he’s anything but at 100% fitness. He came back from injury and looked every bit as deadly as he did the day he left. His game lifted those around him – David Silva looked back to his brilliant best. Sergio Aguero preyed on having another target man on the park alongside him.
Take all the above and throw in the fact that Pellegrini actually, literally, has nobody there who he can justifiably replace De Bruyne with, without looking like a traitor, and I’d say you can just go ahead and pencil him in on the line-up sheet. This is Manchester City’s biggest game of the year and among their biggest ever. They’ve never made it this far and PSG, more so than the opponents will be in the rounds thereafter, are beatable. Pellegrini may well know he’s leaving the club come the summer, but he’s not foolish enough to not throw out the best squad he can. Given he will almost certainly lack Yaya Toure he can’t afford to not include, or to even bench, the young Belgian.
Next: Manchester City 4 - Bournemouth 0 Match Report
Whether Manchester City will progress further or if that task will be left up to incoming manager Pep Guardiola remains to be seen. One thing is for sure though, City will go for it and De Bruyne will reprise his role we so dearly missed when he was away. That much, at least, is for certain.