By Gary Mardle -
Manchester City 2 – 1 Chelsea and how the match was won – Player Analysis – Kevin De Bruyne
Premier League Tours Director Bhavish, myself and three coaches from the Santa Cruz Youth Soccer League attended this match together. This was the first time the three coaches ever experienced watching a premier league match live in person! I made sure to watch Kevin De Bruyne closely during the match as he’s one the best players in the Premier League and has incredible vision, passing and shooting ability. Both teams played with a 4-3-3 formation for this particular match.
Kevin De Bruyne was deployed as Manchester City’s furthest forward midfielder and he came within inches of firing City into the lead when he was released through on goal by Sergio Aguero inside four minutes. However, that was all the champions could muster in their bright opening spell before Chelsea took charge and scored an early goal through N’Golo Kante. Manchester City’s wingers tried to pull the Chelsea full backs out of their positions and open up gaps for De Bruyne and David Silva to receive the ball. To counteract this tactic, Kante and Kovacic dropped into the defence to cover the gaps which led to a lack of space for De Bruyne and David Silva to create any openings.
In the opening period of the match Kevin De Bruyne made runs into the half spaces but as soon as Kovacic dropped back into the Chelsea defence Kevin De Bruyne started to drop back and moved into the opposite direction of Chelsea’s defence to create a gap in front of the defence and this is where I believe the match changed in Manchester City’s favour. When Chelsea’s defenders and midfielders went across the pitch to try to cover Rihad Mahrez this left Kevin De Bruyne with more space in which to receive the ball and this enabled him to take a long range shot that resulted in the equalising goal for Manchester City.
At the start of the match Manchester City tried to press Chelsea’s backline as high as possible up the pitch. However, as the game progressed, they decided to sit back in a half press due to Chelsea playing over the press. This led to Chelsea playing longer and more direct passes to their attacking players which were easily intercepted and blocked by Manchester City’s defence and in particular the outstanding Fernandinho! Manchester City also created a strong central overload and they tried to cut out the central passing lanes for Chelsea.
Kante and Kovacic started to try and play in between the lines of Manchester City’s defence and midfield and this is where things started to really go wrong for Chelsea. Whenever Chelsea misplaced a pass and Manchester City were able to intercept the ball in the central overload Manchester City immediately had a 5 v 4 advantage in their favour. Chelsea in possession often shifted to a back three to try and neutralise Kevin De Bruyne however his movement was so good throughout that this had no effect whatsoever.
Despite having less possession throughout the match, I believe Manchester City won the match due to their clinical finishing and better use of the ball in the wide areas. Chelsea also let Kevin De Bruyne have too much space and time on the ball in the middle of the 1st half and being one of the best midfielders in the Premier League he took advantage by scoring the equalising goal. Also, with De Bruyne playing deeper in midfield as the game progressed this allowed him to dictate possession of the ball and play penetrative and accurate passes to his teammates to help create chances to score goals. This change of position for De Bruyne also denied Chelsea more possession than they had in the first half. Manchester City also exploited Chelsea’s full back Emerson and this led to Mahrez’s excellent solo goal as he showed Mahrez onto his favoured left foot instead of showing him down the by-line onto his weaker foot.
This article was submitted by Gary Mardle of www.premierleaguetours.com
