Gary Neville has claimed Manchester Metropolis are too reliant on Kevin de Bruyne and has advised their struggles in assault will not be merely all the way down to the absence of Sergio Aguero.
Metropolis had been held to a 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Sunday, the fifth consecutive Premier League match the place they’ve didn’t notch greater than a single objective.
With solely 10 strikes of their opening seven matches, Pep Guardiola’s aspect are significantly down on the variety of objectives that they had scored at this stage within the marketing campaign below the Spaniard in all of his earlier seasons.
The absence of a recognised striker for a big portion of the season hasn’t helped issues, with Aguero lasting just one match earlier than choosing up a contemporary harm, while Gabriel Jesus has been injured because the opening day win over Wolves.
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Regardless of these mitigating components, Neville believes that Metropolis have develop into too reliant on De Bruyne for creativity and would not assume their goal-scoring difficulty is as easy a repair as Aguero returning to full health.
“You simply marvel, is it that straightforward as Aguero, is it that straightforward?” Neville instructed the Gary Neville Podcast.
“It may possibly’t be actually. One thing is not the identical, is it? We talked about about these groups two years in the past the place they had been each neck-and-neck proper till the top. They had been flawless, it was a stage of high quality that I have never seen earlier than in Premier League soccer or any soccer for the final 30, 40 years.
“You all the time count on there to be a mistake in direction of the top of the season however there wasn’t. Each groups had been phenomenal defensively, unbelievable in assault, objectives galore.
“They’re a bit bit weaker, which makes the league extra attention-grabbing. These groups operating away with it would not do anyone any favour.
“There may be trigger for concern for Manchester Metropolis. They’re much less exact with their assaults. They rely much more on one participant, Kevin de Bruyne, than they did two, three years in the past.
“It feels wish to me, if they are not on tune, then they do not create anyplace close to as a lot. David Silva is a large miss, we knew he was an excellent participant and nearly the glue that related every thing collectively.
“He saved the circulation within the recreation and the rhythm and so they haven’t got him, they do not have Kompany, it is a altering staff. Definitely, they’re completely different, they are not pretty much as good defensively and so they’re not as exact in assault or as harmful in assault.
“They’re nonetheless an excellent staff however two years in the past was a magic yr and now we’re seeing a little bit of a drop off from that.”
