Wednesday night saw Manchester City kick off their Champions League group stage campaign with a resounding and comfortable 4-0 victory over Dutch champions Feyenoord at the De Kuip stadium. Two John Stones goals either side of Aguero and Gabriel Jesus strikes saw City record their biggest away victory in their Champions League history.
After their 5-0 thumping of Liverpool at the Etihad last weekend, it seems as though Pep Guardiola has got his side playing the way he wants them. Free-flowing, silky, attractive football, the kind reminiscent of his Barcelona glory days and they certainly showed in these two victories.
Now in his second season in England, it will take some time before City reach the levels of the beautiful football Barcelona between 2009 – 2012, the year of dominance under Guardiola. However, days such as Wednesday’s Champions League thumping and the victory over Liverpool can only help the idea that City are heading in the right direction under Guardiola’s guidance.
The Spanish coaches ideologies and philosophies inherited from the cathedral of his one time mentor and footballing great Johan Cruyff, a legend who founded the idea of ‘Total Football’, a model Guardiola has been following all his managerial footballing life.
What Guardiola is trying to build at City is that ‘Total Football’ aura and brand, where players such as the attacking outlets are given the freedom to express. These aren’t just any players, but individuals blessed with great technical skill, an eye for goal, the eye for the beautiful pass and above all, a total understanding of the game. David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Fernandinho, Benjamin Mendy to name a fair few, but one man central to Guardiola’s ideology and plans, one man who just about completes the puzzle, the Belgian architect Kevin De Bruyne – Guardiola’s on-field lieutenant.
Guardiola was used as the same outlet for Cruyff in his playing days, just as Xavi and Andres Iniesta were for him at Barcelona, and also the evergreen Philip Lahm at Bayern Munich. De Bruyne is currently engrossed with the same responsibility as those footballing greats, whether he can reach those same heights is certainly up to him but he is going the right way about it with these kind of performances. He was the shining light in an otherwise disappointing but progressive campaign last season for Pep Guardiola and his City side.
In his post-match interview after the Liverpool game, while collecting his Man-of-the-Match award, the Belgian was talking about needing to “play smart” , “find gaps” and exploit Liverpool’s highline. You could tell, Guardiola has had an impact on the Belgian, the sort of impact where De Bruyne is Guardiola’s brains on field. The Spaniard progressively puppeteering De Bruyne to do as he desires on the football pitch.
The match at the Etihad being marred by the incident between Sadio Mane and Ederson drew the attention away from the midfield masterclass we experienced from Kevin De Bruyne. It was a performance so in tune with what his manager wants that if you looked and analysed closely, its possible to make out that Guardiola was definitely pulling the strings from the sidelines.
The architect of City’s first two goals against Liverpool, supplying Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero – the second being a perfect and sumptuous weighted through ball for Aguero which cut through Liverpool’s sorry defence, like something out of the parting of the Red Sea biblically delivered by Moses. Like something out of a gospel choir in a cathedral, caressingly soothing the souls of the congregation. City fans would have been graciously saved by the sight of Kevin De Bruyne’s deliveries. The Belgian killed the ball dead, pulled out his protractor and played a wonderful dissecting ball into Aguero’s path.
As far it gets from the tiki-taka or the total football, these are quick forward passes Guardiola loves where his players successfully force the issue. As always the case with Kevin De Bruyne, the weight at which the pass was measured was so mesmerising. If the Belgian was a butcher, he wouldn’t need scales.
To think, he couldn’t even make the grade under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, he was then catastrophically sold to Wolfsburg. Though – since then -the Belgian has grown and matured into a wonderful footballer, picking up the ability to take the game by the scruff of the neck, the ability to control games at his own pace. Those characteristics were exactly on show in City’s two victories this past week. His cross for John Stones second against Feyenoord was also telling. A carbon copy of his cross for Jesus’s goal against Liverpool, a David Beckham-esque whipped delivery which Sky Sports Pundit Gary Neville was totally in awe of.
It is now 40 assists since he made the move to England from Wolfsburg for all of £51million in August 2015. According to Squawka, the 56 he has recorded since the 2013/14 season is more than any other player across Europe’s top five leagues over the same period. Simply outstanding.
Though, for him to be considered amongst the world’s best he would need to improve his goal return – as perhaps is the case with United’s Paul Pogba. Six and seven goals over the past two Premier League seasons is below what the Belgian is fully capable of . In fairness, he did hit the woodwork an astonishing nine times last season, more than any other player. Few are better in the world of football at keeping things simple than Kevin De Bruyne, no wonder why his performances go under the radar at times.
The flashiest thing he’s probably ever done is buy a king sized Twix. Even then, he would have probably thought it be better to save the other finger till later in the week. While his assists over the past week have been brilliant to watch, it is perhaps his innate and subconscious ability to find space when needed.
The Belgian international is not just one of the most creative players in the Premier League, he is also the most economical. He only runs when required. Acutely aware in a country raised on a culture where not running is deemed a crime, he has soon worked out that it would be easier to pick pockets by standing still.
Though in a more advanced role, Thomas Muller of Bayern Munich is another master at finding the only free deckchair on a really packed seaside. The technical term is the Raumdeuter – an interpreter of space.
Like many of the understudies of Johan Cruyff, Pep Guardiola has moulded the Total Football formula in his own image. When you don’t have the ball, you make the pitch as small as possible by pressing high up the pitch. And when you win it back, you do the opposite by making it as big as possible trying to pick out spaces.
At times, against Liverpool and Feyenoord, it was Total Football at its finest. Finding the space is one thing, but knowing what to do with it is another thing entirely. De Bruyne has that ability to see things that other players cannot, forever scanning and darting between opponents and team-mates. The perfect quarter-back at times, sitting deep and interpreting those exposed spaces. Think of it like this, he’s like a Google maps satellite. Technically speaking, he has all the attributes to hit almost every target possible.
The best way to control space is to have an on-field architect, someone to slow things down when play gets too hectic, then speed things up when the time is right. In terms of dictating the rhythm of a game – just like Xavi or Phillip Lahm in their own time – their are few better right now than Kevin De Bruyne. Against Liverpool, he was physically and technically on a different playing level to his Liverpool counterparts.
Whether Guardiola can succeed in his second season at the helm could hinge upon the form of his on-field lieutenant Kevin De Bruyne – along with David Silva. What would work in the Spaniard’s favour is the squad depth he has at his disposal, which means players cannot afford an off day, with Bernardo Silva, Yaya Toure, and Ilkay Gundogan, a trident of ridiculous talent, waiting in the wings.
Nonetheless, City will be shoe in favourites with United and Chelsea for the Premier league title but part of any potential success City could enjoy this season whether it be in the Champions League or domestically hinges on the form of Kevin De Bruyne: The Belgian architect central to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City project.
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