Normal service resumed | De Bruyne steps up | Palace preview
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Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Talking City podcast from the Manchester Evening News. I'm Tyrone Marshall in the host chair today. We're recording on a Friday morning. Pep Guardiola is speaking at his pre-Palais Pest conference. In about two and a half hours, I'm joined by Simon Bukowski, who is already at the CFA. Just cannot get enough of Pep, can you, Si? They're incredibly early. Had your breakfast there this morning, I imagine, just counting down the minutes until you can see Pep. It's been a long

A long couple of days since you last saw him. I just, you know, I love everything about the football club. Always like to get here early and just speak to people, see what's going on. And I'm also delighted that we're back because sometimes we say we'll be back later in the week and we're not. And then people don't get an explanation. But we are back. We're back to this week, which is always nice.

We are. Our word is our bond, people. We said we'd be back and just like Arnold Schwarzenegger, we are. And I'll be going to join Si for that press conference shortly. There was another reason he's at the training ground. It'll all become clear later in the week. It isn't just that he's stalking Pep. But a bit of positivity for this podcast as well compared to last week. Normal service resumed on Wednesday night. A 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest. You were there, Si, was it?

Nice to cover a normal, in inverted commas, City game for a change. It was nice, yeah. And also it did kind of feel like the game was won at 2-3-0, which you couldn't necessarily say for Feyenoord. So it did feel like there was a bit more stability there. And I think there were sort of a few fears that not that many, well, there's always a lot of fans who turn up, but there might be sort of,

a fair few empty seats but it was quite full the South of town were very loud throughout so it was a very well a mostly encouraging night for City injuries aside which we'll get on to

Yes, we definitely will. And I guess in a way that the last half an hour was encouraging, as encouraging as the first hour, given that they've shown 3-0 was a dangerous lead a week ago. To come through unscathed and keep that clean sheet, it builds a bit of confidence, doesn't it? And it puts a positive spin on all aspects of the night. Yeah, it's amazing how few clean sheets they've kept this season.

So every time they do it, it kind of builds one up and keeps the team happy. And like you say, it's just seeing things out. They've not been able to see things out. They've played sort of, I would say they've played well for at least some of every game apart from Bournemouth in their long losing run.

and winless run, but they've not been able to do it over 90 minutes, so it was kind of nice. You know, Forest had their chances, but it was nice that City were able to sort of show more control over a game than they have been able to in recent weeks and months. Yeah, and how close did it feel to kind of that City of old? I mean, I made the point on the podcast earlier in the week and wrote a piece, and it felt like

Pepper Cunningham had such a rabbit hole in a way of trying to fix the various issues in his team that it started to look a very un-city team. I was at the Emirates on Wednesday covering United, but when I saw the city team drop, I thought that looks more like a city team to me. It looks more like you can visualise that team a lot easier than you could some of the others. Was there a view of maybe it was kind of a

I don't want to say back to basics, but back to kind of what you expect from a city team and a pet team. Did it, did it play out like that? Did it look like some of those patterns of old? I mean, it was, it's always, it's always a bit of security when they go to four centre-backs because you sort of think, right, that, that is the treble team. Um,

And, you know, there was a bit of freshness as well with certainly when they started playing and it was evident that Grealish was inside in the midfield. It was like, well, that's something new. But it's kind of, I mean, you asked Pep the other week and something similar. Like he keeps saying he's up for the challenge and he's like...

He wants to find the solution and everyone keeps saying he will find the solution. But, you know, you asked if he was enjoying it and he said absolutely not. Sort of almost on the verge of asking, like, would you not rather just let someone else do it for you? Like, this time you don't have to be the guy who solves it all because something else comes along that helps you. And it felt like Kevin De Bruyne was that person on...

Wednesday night who came back into the team and the whole midfield. I've not seen energy in that, that energy in that midfield for,

almost all season um you know it felt like the first 20 minutes of the Arsenal game they were zipping about everywhere and they've just not had that and it was it made an instant impact on the team and also an instant impact on the the crowd who were like right we've right this is something to go at um so it changed the whole mood in the stadium really yeah and where did that energy come from then was it as simple as bringing De Bruyne back in I think it

you know from from i've seen the extended highlights you were there if it felt like a reminder of kind of what he can bring there's been it's been a very slow integration for him back from that injury the injury's gone on longer than anyone expected in a way it feels like always he's been written off in the last few weeks this was a reminder of his quality but you don't always expect him to kind of bring that energy and intensity but by the sounds of things he made a difference maybe off the ball as well as on it it's one of those things you can't say that

Had De Bruyne not been there, that there wouldn't have been the reaction because maybe they were in a better frame of mind and maybe they thought that something had to change after Liverpool. Mm-hmm.

But it felt, with De Bruyne there, this feels like a different team. This feels like a different mood. And, you know, he's not the player that he was when, you know, five or six years ago, but he's still the best, one of the best players in the league, if not the best player in the league when he plays. And even just like Haaland dropped back a lot more, you know, and again, you could say that's,

he's been told to do that to get more involved regardless of de bruyne but it it made such a difference just having someone always looking to play harland in harland just seemed like automatically more after a goal because there was someone who was always trying to find a way through to him where people just haven't been able to do that in the way that de bruyne does yeah and in a way i was going to touch on harland i mean it seemed evident that he was getting involved

in the play a lot more coming deeper a lot more you know we talked about what difficult afternoon it was for him at Anfield and we didn't get a sniff and it's those it's those sort of games at Anfield when you look at it and just think you know you almost think this is mad that this City team of Peppers playing with such a number nine as Harland who never gets involved because it's so enough to everything he believes in and I mean it was interesting that he suddenly was a bigger part of the build-up but it was just tactical for this game we'll see

But in a way, probably also encouraging that he didn't score and City still scored three because it was a big part of the post-Liverpool debrief that without Haaland, you kind of wonder where on earth are the goals going to come from in this team.

Yeah, and it was also part of the Liverpool debrief that people were saying, well, what does Haaland actually bring? Why do you have him in this team? He scores more goals than any other human in the planet. When Pep's been asked, he's like, ask any team would they want Erling Haaland in their team? And they'd say yes. So, you know, that's not to say that he's been brilliant in this run, but...

Pep made very clear in his press conference the day before the game, without being asked, he was like, if we'd have had five goals or assists from Kevin, from Phil, from Jeremy, from Savinho, from all these midfielders and wingers that have contributed nothing in terms of goals, if we'd had just a few from them, we'd be top of the league.

So when you see a routine win over Nottingham Forest with three goals and three goal scorers who are not Erling Haaland, you're like, yeah, a team that does that can be challenging for the title.

Yeah, and that's the thing because you know that Haaland will score. You know that Haaland will come good. You're fine with, say they win 3-0 on Saturday and Haaland gets a hat-trick. You're fine with that if other people are contributing when he doesn't score. And that has been a major issue this season. It's where De Bruyne will improve things because he brings so much more creativity. But it was important to see Doku on the score sheet as well. We've

I kind of made the case that it'd be nice almost to go back to those basics and see two proper wingers like Doku and Savinio. But the problem with playing them is as entertaining as they are to watch and as great as they are to watch, there's been just no end products.

And it's kind of been baffling in a way that you can have two wingers like that who haven't been contributing. To see Doku get on the score sheet is big. And you feel like if those two especially can really find a bit more end product in the final third, it can make a real big difference to City's season, can't it? Yeah, the worry was as Doku got better and better as the game went on where

was that he had a game last season against Bournemouth quite early on where he got one goal and four assists. And then those were basically all of his goals and assists for the season. Just like he'd done it all in one game. And as he got sort of terrorising the Forest defence, he was like, no, no, save a bit for Palace at the weekend. Like, carry on. It was, yeah, but pleasing to see that. And also, you know, he could have passed to Haaland for the goal and didn't. And that, again, is something that

you're quite happy to see, you know, you want your wingers to be taking goals off Haaland because like you say, Haaland will score. So it was a very encouraging night for the attack and also, you know, a decent, very decent night for Jack Grealish really. Pep was sort of very bothered by, you know,

criticism of his relationship with Kevin De Bruyne after the Liverpool game. You had Jamie Carragher, you had Gary Neville, you had Gary Lineker, you had Micah Richards all piling in saying, oh, there's a rift, there's something going on. I thought the most stinging criticism of City post-Liverpool was Shea Given, actually. I don't know if you caught it on

on the radio on Monday night who accused Pep of turning Jack Grealish into a mannequin and said he'd been playing him out of position ever since he joined City, which, you know, is quite the accusation from a former City player. But, you know, Gibbon knows Grealish from his Villa days and he knows Villa, Jack, this kind of mythical figure who

ran every game and scored 80 goals and provided 100 assists every season. But it's kind of, Grealish did give them something in the middle and Pep speaking afterwards saying, you know, he understands the control and when to accelerate and the tempo of the game perfectly. So if that can be something that is carried forward, then, you know, that might be a solution to City's midfield that,

that they've not really had there before or not thought of before. Yeah, and it seems, I think when, it was one of those moments in a press conference where we kind of mentioned it on Sunday that I have a feeling that Jack can be the solution in the midfield and it's part of a wider, longer answer. But when it comes out, I think the supporters really jumped on that and wanted to see that. And he is kind of an interesting case study. I mean, I get a little bit where Che Givens is coming from. And I think we spoke about this a lot last season that

Guardiola signed Grealish and then turned him into this kind of a lot more controlling than he was at Villa. And obviously he was, you know, he made a real difference in that treble season. He did bring control out wide, but there's no doubt he had to curb some of those

kind of more creative, freewheeling instincts, I guess he had at Villa. He was kind of, he was the man at Villa, basically, wasn't he? Where it was like, you go where you want, you get the ball, you go and influence the game. And he was never really going to be allowed to be that player at City. And you don't really have that kind of player in a Pep team. So he was changed a bit. Then obviously last season,

Doc who came in and just went, right, you do you to Doc. You go and do what you want. And, you know, Gruden's been looking at that thinking, well, hang on, I couldn't do me. And you wonder if that sort of contributed to the issues he's had, the form he's had. But playing him in a more central role is, I mean, it's kind of something the first two years, you never got the impression that Pep wanted to try it. And suddenly he is keen to try it. And it looks like there's maybe something

a future there for him and perhaps something more long-term as well. We've spoken about the age gap for that midfield. We don't know how long De Bruyne is going to go on for. Grealish in the middle. It's got potential, hasn't it? Yeah. I mean, I think the thing to say about Grealish throughout all of this is that, like, he would have played more and he would have influenced the game more if he'd played better. Like, he's had three seasons at City and he's been good for half of one season. Yeah. Yeah.

And some of that is him adapting to the system and City not playing to his strengths. But fundamentally, he's just not been as good as he could have been. And everyone would like him to now take this chance. And everyone would have liked him to have been the star for the last three years. But it's, you know, I feel like it's...

It's on him. It's down to him. And if he can do this, then that's brilliant. But, you know, I don't think, I don't really think City have mistreated him such or sort of not played to

his strengths are the detriment of the team or anything. I just think he's failed to kind of make his mark as he would have liked and as everyone would have liked. So, I mean, maybe this is where he comes now. And that's fantastic, but we'll just have to wait and see. Yeah, absolutely. That's all for part one. We'll be back after the break to look ahead to a trip to Palace.

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Welcome back to the Talking City podcast. Crystal Palace away on Saturday for City then. A chance to build some momentum. I think it was a week ago in the pre-Liverpool press conference when Guardiola said that beating Liverpool would change nothing and that we need 10, 11, 12 wins in a row to kind of change the mood and make an impact. They didn't beat Liverpool, but they did beat Nottingham Forest.

Has it been a turning point? Is it a turning point? Or do they still need to string a row of good results together to really have the belief that things have changed and they're back on track now? It was interesting listening to Pep after the game and sort of seeing his demeanour. His demeanour was not one of a happy man. And he was quite agitated during the game. Some of that was down to City's kind of slack behaviour.

slack play but um you kind of couldn't help but feel that he was more concerned and worried by the injuries they picked up than he was happy for the for the result and you know he was asked quite a lot what's what what's changed what changed tonight what what was different and he was like nothing other than the result like we played the same we just won and other games we didn't

And you're like, right, okay. And understandably, you'll want to kind of, he's been defending the performances throughout, but it was when he was talking about the injuries and he was kind of like, yeah, I'm sad for Nathan. And Nathan Ake kind of,

It was just an innocuous thing towards the end of the game with his hamstring, but he instantly set sort of signal to the bench that he needed to come off. The worry is that he's suffered a recurrence of the hamstring issue that he suffered on international duty in September that kept him out for two months, essentially. And you talk about composure and that has been lacking in the City team in their run.

Ake is one of the more composed figures and he just brings such a calmness at the back. And he was really good on Wednesday night. So for him to be missing would be a blow. And then Akanji came off at half-time as well. Stones is still out. So you're potentially talking about going to Crystal Palace with Ruben Diaz as your only fit centre-back. And Diaz, who had been out for a month and has now played two 90s in the space of four days. So it's...

yeah, the concerns are there for the long term still just because of injuries, really. Yeah, I mean, let's get on to those defensive injuries then. That was clearly the dark cloud on the horizon on Wednesday night. I mean, it put a downer on the result and it clearly put a downer on Pep's mood as well. And it is at the back now, isn't it, where these injuries are problematic. I mean, it's,

are we going to see Simpson Pussy again on Saturday? It feels like that's got to be a possibility. Walker's surely got to start at right back. I mean, they are really stretched and it

and you mentioned diaz there it's it feels like he is one of the more robust players in this squad but it's still a big ask to play three nineties and a lot of these injuries have come i think pep doctor and again from players basically putting themselves on the line players are being forced back early and saying they're available and coming back early to try and do the right thing by the team but then suffering reoccurrences and it almost feels like city is stuck in this kind of catch-22 situation again at the moment and i guess

The risk with Diaz this weekend is that he will clearly say he's available. Pep will clearly feel we've got to play him, but it's going to come with a risk, isn't it? Yeah. You know, I'm sure the medical team will be speaking to Pep about the, you know, the workload of Diaz and Pep will,

to their advice, but whether he sort of... If they say don't play him, it's still up to Pep whether he plays him or not and doesn't have much choice because there is so few players available. You know, it wouldn't be a surprise if Walker maybe played as a centre-back because...

You've got Guardiola, obviously, but there's no one on the left. So do you put Lewis on the left and play Guardiola inside and Walker on the right? Or do you play Walker and Diaz? Or do you start Simpson Pussy again, who's had a baptism of fire, is putting it mildly, coming into a team...

And, you know, he's struggled. It's never nice to put a young player into the team when they're struggling so much, when the team is struggling so much because it doesn't breed confidence. So you'll have to bear that in mind as well. And, of course, you know, I've been at Palace when City have had similar crises in defence, but they've had, I think, one game five years ago, they played Fernandinho and Rodri at the back, which, like, is...

a wildcard solution, but Pep's not... It's not like City have got the midfielders that can drop back because Kovacic and Rodri are both injured. So, like you say, it is this kind of cycle of people getting injured and that's why it's kind of... It's not so much the Rodri injury, but it's like if all your centre-backs fall apart at the same time. I think it happened to Liverpool when they were trying to defend the title. And it's like... It's a really...

basic thing that nobody wants to hear. Like, oh, you just deal with it. You've got the best squad in the world. You've got the biggest squad in the world. Coat with it. But it's like, no, no. If you've got like, if you've got four centre-backs and either three or four of them are injured, you can't, you're limited in what you can do. So I think it will be kind of another patched up city trying to make the best of what they've got. And it's,

These games are harder when you're patched up away from home than at home, aren't they? At least you've got the comfort blanket of the Etihad. When you have to go to somewhere like Palace, the atmosphere is always good. It feels, you know, it's a smallish ground, but it feels quite claustrophobic in a way. It's quite tight. It's...

It's clearly going to be a real examination, isn't it? I started the section by saying Pep said he needed 10, 11, 12 wins, but it does feel like this. And in a way, the game coming up in midweek away at Juventus, it's a Champions League game that's suddenly got a fair bit riding on it in terms of City getting into the top eight. These two, and Saturday especially, they feel like a real litmus test for how

for what we saw on Wednesday. Is that the start of the recovery or was it just a one-off? And in a way, they're at a point where they need to build momentum, aren't they? And kind of need a result to keep that momentum going on Saturday. They went to Palace in April last season.

And they needed to win for the Premier League. And they also had Real Madrid three days later. And they needed to win to keep their Champions League hopes alive. It feels very similar, except we're only in December. And, you know, Kevin De Bruyne came back in that game and showed what he could do. And Jack Grealish did well after, you know, struggling for the season. And he stopped to speak to us after that game to sort of get his points across. So it feels like City are already in that kind of knockout mode.

where they need to get results for the sake of the season. And that might be a bit premature, but we are in December now. Time is ticking on. And City players have always said to get into their position where they can win everything in sight in the later months. They have to be in that position.

after getting that position in the first place and you do that in these months. So it is a must win. Again, I must say like on Wednesday, it kind of felt a bit,

it suddenly felt the cheerier not only for City winning but also Liverpool while they were losing at Newcastle it kind of felt like you know is somebody going to ask Pep if it's back off and see what response they get I'll let you figure out who was lined up to ask that but it's one of those so things can change really really quickly and

But also City have already lost more matches this season than they did last season in the league. And if you lose another, Liverpool are just looking too strong and also Chelsea and Arsenal. So you need to sort of stay in contention, whatever it takes.

Yeah, Pep always says how good his team are as well when it kind of gets to that point where every game, even in the league, is knockout and must win. But it's never started at the start of December before. It's much harder to maintain it over six months than it is for three months. Last year then, let's talk about selection at Sellers Park. I mean, obviously, there's going to be a couple of changes. You'd think defensively we'll find out more from the press conference. But what else happens? And I guess the two of the key issues,

Jack Green is through the middle again. And is Stefan Ortega the number one, though? Yeah, Ortega's interesting, isn't it? You know, was brought in for Liverpool, the biggest game of the season. Guardiola says, no, Edison's my number one, but Ortega might continue. And, you know, it feels like because City are still sieving chances that Guardiola kind of thinks an elite shot-stopper is...

more important to the team at the minute than Edison's elite distribution. Edison's obviously kind of better than a lot, give him credit for it, save him. But Ortega's very good with his feet as well. So he's got that going for him. So it does feel like Ortega's done anything to think he should be dropped. So I think I'd probably go with Ortega against Palace.

But we'll just have to, you know, I can't imagine Edison will be happy about being out of the team either, especially if he is number one. So I think he'll probably go with Ortega. And then I'd be tempted to go with De Bruyne and Grealish again. You know, it helps by the fact that Foden would want to play in the middle, but Foden's been out with bronchitis in midweek. So he's not been...

He's not been his best anyway all season, but I don't think he'll be at his fittest, even if he's available to travel down with them and play at Selhurst. So I'd be tempted to say to the group of players who got them through Wednesday night to go again. Maybe Savino comes in or something like that. But I think it'll be mostly the same. And I think they'll be looking for the Kevin De Bruyne charm to...

to continue to work wonders for them. Absolutely. We will see. You will be there, Si. We'll have you covered once again from...

from sellers park uh that's all for today's recording uh we'll be back on monday probably for another another podcast as well not sure who it will be maybe joe will come in for one of us but we will find out and two of the three of us will be back like i say our word is our bond so keep an eye out for us in your feeds on monday and tuesday make sure you are subscribing to the podcast and get them whenever they do whenever they do land um and give us a like and a subscribe that's all for now and we'll speak to you all next week

Thank you.