Yesterday Manchester City confirmed that their star of last season Kevin De Bruyne had picked up a knee injury in training that could keep him out the game for up to three months. KDB was integral in City’s record-breaking Premier League campaign and he would be missed be any team in the world.
However, Manchester City has great squad depth and De Bruyne’s teammate Kyle Walker is convinced that they will be able to cope without the Belgian star.
Walker said: “Kevin is a great player and it’s just unfortunate that it’s happened to him in training but there’s more than enough depth in the squad. We don’t just rely on one player. It’s a team game and whoever steps in will do well. Obviously, it’s a big loss but we’ve got more than enough cover.”
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KDB was City’s main star last season
De Bruyne narrowly missed out on the Player of the Year award to Mo Salah and his performances inspired his City team to wrap the Premier League title up well before the end of the season. His absence could give other teams like Liverpool an advantage, knowing that Manchester City has lost their top player for a large section of the season.
City’s strength in depth
Having added Riyad Mahrez to an already exceptional team of world-class stars, City will not be short of players who can step up in De Bruyne’s absence. Raheem Sterling has hit the ground running with a great performance and goal against Arsenal. Leroy Sane will no doubt be keen to show why he should have made the Germany squad for Russia and they have also welcomed back Benjamin Mendy after his long spell out, so they definitely are not looking like a team that is short of quality.
City have a relatively easy run of fixtures up until their clash with Liverpool at Anfield, which is expected to be the first real test of whether Liverpool will be genuine challengers for City this season.