Unleash the Centurions: Looking Towards Burnley

Unleashing the Centurions

There is a potentially pleasing kind of symmetry on offer tomorrow for Manchester City. So far this season City have claimed the top of the Premier League Table without really hitting top gear. Sure there have been moments in some of their performances but the intensity they hit last season has not yet fully materialised.

There are lots of reasons for this – the short break following the World cup which limited the amount of full squad training Pep Guardiola was able to undertake with his team, the disjointed nature of player returns, the relentless international breaks and the general improvement of many other teams.

But the over arching reason effecting Manchester City has been the absence through injury of Kevin de Bruyne. Despite the Liverpool fanboys feverish claims this week that Virgil Van Dyke was the 3rd best player in the world (they have never been big on facts), that particular honour actually belongs to Kevin de Bruyne. This may even be the season where he threatens to break into the top 2 best football players in the world.

Simply put de Bruyne has the capacity to make the Manchester City team purr. He oils the wheels of the side to ensure the ball moves at pace around the pitch and has the capacity to slip into a variety of roles during a match, confounding defenders and the tactical plans of Managers alike. Sure, towards the end of last season he looked tired but his injury has allowed him a break of nearly 3 months, so I would hope tiredness will not be an issue for him this season.

Any player returning from a lengthy lay off can often take a few games to acclimatise to the pace of the game and build up their fitness sufficiently to compete and I expect de Bruyne to experience something similar. However I recall his return from a similar injury before when he seemed to be operating at full pace immediately.So maybe tomorrow will be a full speed de Bruyne but only for 70 minutes. It may therefore be part of the plan to try and get in front early.

The symmetry De Bruyne brings to our team with David Silva is at times as beautiful a partnership as can be found in modern football. The opportunity to see this in action again, for the first time since we left the pitch as Centurions seems too great to miss and for that I am genuinely excited.

Guardiola stated today in his pre match press conference that Fabian Delph was back to fitness but Ilkay Gundogan was likely to be sidelined for a number of weeks. Other than that our first team squad is looking pretty strong. I always worry a little after the International Breaks as to the task Guardiola has in a short time to get the side training and reintegrated. How does he get the team intensity up with so little preparation time? International breaks don’t tend to mean long arduous journeys for Burnley players so I would expect Shaun Dyche to have his side well drilled and ready.

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The game tomorrow at the Etihad presents another opportunity for this Manchester City team to claim another record. They have won their last 33 consecutive 3pm kick offs at the Etihad and stand to have a good chance to break this record tomorrow.

The game also presents an opportunity for Guardiola to experiment tactically. He knows how hard and high Burnley may press and how well they are equipped to hit a team on the break. They are something of a form team at the moment, coming into the game having taken 7 of their last 9 points. I believe Guardiola may well seek to try a different tactical approach in the game, but trying to predict which option he will follow may well be a fool’s game!

I think this is a game where Sergio Aguero will start and Benjamin Mendy will feature in a maurading left back role. The first time crossing of Mendy which we have not seen in every game will I think return but to accommodate this approach we may see another assymetrical line up, which will confuse us all. I wonder whether we will see Kyle Walker, Aymeric Laporte and John Stones preferred in defence with Mendy joining them whilst defending but free to roam othewise. To accommodate this I think Leroy Sane may well be on the bench or rested altogether and perhaps David Silva on the left. That would allow space for Mendy and allow Silva to interplay. The right hand side will I think see a more traditional shape with a dedicated winger such as Raheem Sterling.

I expect a rested Fernandinho to start in defensive midfield with Kevin de Bruyne immediately in front of him. The remaining spot on the team can be either Bernardo Silva, our stand out player so far this season, or Gabriel Jesus. Either has the potential to cause havoc in between the defensive lines and create movement for de Bruyne and Silva to aim for.

So my prediction is we may line up with a host of familiar names , but they may assume some slightly different positions on the field. All told this game will be a sterner test than many pundits have suggested. Burnley are nothing if not solid and in order to beat them we will be required to be at the top of our game.

There is an opportunity here to have us all genuinely salivating over -the centurions side in full, back in action again and capable of setting a benchmark. That prospect may put some serious fear into Burnley who could easily find themselves on the wrong end of a cricket score. Bring it on.