The KDB options: All hail Mahrez

Hearing the news today Kevin de Bruyne has suffered an injury in training this morning, sent some Man City fans into a predictable descent into turmoil. Twitter was alive with memes of despair and awash with fans wishing KDB a speedy recovery.

Although Man City have not offered any view yet as to the likelihood of recovery time it would appear there is sufficient concern at the club to have arranged for the Belgian to visit the renowned Dr Cugat – a man who Guardiola describes as the best doctor in the world – in Barcelona.

As initial swelling subsides in the next few days, Dr Cugat will make an initial assessment and devise a treatment plan. Back in 2016 against Everton in the League Cup Semi Final KDB suffered a similar knee injury. That was diagnosed as lateral knee ligament damage and KDB was absent from the first team for a total of 10 weeks.

The initial voices from within the club suggest this morning’s injury is expected to be similar to the 2016 injury.

As it stands KDB has played continuously for a couple of seasons becoming our mainstay in midfield and achieving plaudits as one of the best players in world football. The continuous playing, coming off a lengthy World Cup and his return to training in the last 10 days will all have caused stresses in his body. Players are always susceptible to injury in these periods of transition.

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Back in 2016 the loss of KDB caused our season to partly derail. His absence was felt and we did not have enough quality in our team to cope. His return to action coincided with an uplift in our form, leading to a run to the Champions League semi final and a finish in the automatic qualification places for the following seasons elite European competition.

This time out though we have a stronger first team squad so are more able to cope with the loss of KDB. And we have Guardiola.

I expect the Spanish manager to consider some further tactical tweaks to our approach over the next seven or eight games. Whilst Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden all have strong qualities to stake a place in central midfield, none of them have the passing ability of KDB. But then again probably few players in world football have that ability.

Playing Bernardo, Gundogan and Foden will allow their industry to combine with crosses from the full backs. City could vary between 5-3-2 and 4-4-2 in coming weeks.

However, there is another option I would like to see Pep experiment with. That would be deploying Riyad Mahrez in the KDB central role. Mahrez has the passing ability to create havoc and this may allow some genuine confusion in opposition  teams especially if we also play Sane and Sterling to create the speediest attack ever deployed.

Mahrez is unlikely to match KDB style pressing in a match so City would have to be reliant upon the work rate of Gabriel Jesus to manage such a team approach.

So Guardiola has a range of options open to him and the loss of KDB presents opportunities for other players to seize. Our title performance will ultimately depend upon how many of the players step up and make KDB’s absence invisible.

If Guardiola loses KDB for 10/12 weeks then his return will be in the latter Champions League group games and as the League picks up the pace in the run up to Christmas. A rested and reinvigorated KDB may well be a scary thought for other teams in the months ahead.