Pep Guardiola’s side were crowned kings of English football on Sunday as their arch rivals Manchester United slumped to a shock 1-0 defeat against struggling West Bromwich Albion. There were signs of the Guardiola blueprint during his first campaign in England but City were too often undermined by basic failings, individual errors.
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The ex-Barcelona and Bayern Munich chief has already spent some US$643 million, in the past two seasons, on his Manchester outfit.
De Bruyne’s new role also got the best out of central midfield partner David Silva, who has played just ahead of De Bruyne and been given license to go forward more. You have to try to be more consistent next season.
“Of course they’ve had to defend free-kicks, of course they’ve had to do the ugly part of the game at certain points but they’ve absolutely shown us another way”.
Mourinho’s former club are 11 points behind United with five matches to play – the same number as United have heading to Bournemouth, where the composition of the Portuguese’s starting line-up and squad will be interesting.
City captain Vincent Kompany has spoken of creating a dynasty at the club but it’s clear that won’t happen under Guardiola, who has often wondered out loud how Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) and Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) managed to stay so long at one.
He won three league titles with Barcelona and twice lifted the Champions League trophy during his Camp Nou reign.
The Argentine – City’s record goalscorer – has been troubled by a problem in his left knee for the past five weeks. Besides the statutory Sterling late goals – two of them – De Bruyne produced another masterclass. I play and make a lot of jokes with them.
Under the terms of his contract, the Belgium ace will also get an £800,000 bonus if he completes more than 60 per cent of City’s league games this season and £100,000 for winning the League Cup. If you read what the people say this week we have to improve. “They feel more responsibility for everything and it’s easier to explain how to attack and how to play out from the back”, he added.
De Bruyne believes the current squad is well placed to build on this season’s achievements.
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Manchester United head coach Jose Mourinho walks to the dressing room aft half time during the Champions League round of 16 second leg soccer match between Manchester United and Sevilla, at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, Tuesday, March 13, 2018.
