De Bruyne injury to force Man City to find replacement
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has claimed that the club will look to add to the squad following the injury of Kevin De Bruyne.
The Belgian midfielder suffered a serious hamstring injury in City’s opening Premier League match of the season.
The setback was essentially a continuation of a similar injury suffered during the Champions League final against Inter Milan.
Coach confirms star midfielder out until new year
Guardiola confirmed on Friday that De Bruyne will need surgery to fix the issue. The star midfielder is set to be on the sidelines for around four months.
Although City has arguably the best team in Europe, the Belgian will be a massive miss for the club. The head coach acknowledged this in a recent press conference.
“We are talking a lot with Txiki [Begiristain] about what to do. Maybe yeah we need to add someone else,” Guardiola stated on Friday. “The blow from Kevin change a little bit the perspective. Kevin is a really, really important player and we’ve not lost him a week or two weeks, it’s four months. He needs to be physical, it’s not like actions like Bernardo [Silva], he needs space. So we have to reflect.”
“We are thinking about what we have to do but at the same time the market is the market and you have to control everything.”
City still has not found Mahrez replacement
Along with the De Bruyne loss, the treble winners have also lost Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan this summer as well.
Mahrez was recently sold to Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli. Gundogan, on the other hand, joined Barcelona as a free agent. City replaced the German international with Mateo Kovacic, but has yet to bring in a reinforcement for the Algerian.
In recent weeks, Rennes winger Jeremy Doku has been linked with the reigning Premier League champs. However, nothing is entirely set in stone just yet, and multiple teams are currently chasing the youngster. Doku is De Bruyne’s international teammate with Belgium but would be more of a Mahrez replacement at the club.
Guardiola also admitted at the press conference that De Bruyne is essentially irreplaceable.
Any potential new midfield signing will have to help fill the Belgian’s void, but it is impossible to directly find a player of his quality. City have less than two weeks to find suitable players before the summer transfer market closes on September 1st.
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