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FA Cup Preview: Tottenham vs Man City

FA Cup Preview: Tottenham vs Man City

Looking at KDB Future Role, Omar Berrada Crossing the Divide and Transfer News Round Up

Bailey Wynne
January 22nd, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes

0. Standings, Fixtures and Statistics

1. FA Cup: Tottenham vs Man City Full Preview

We are yet to score a goal at the new Tottenham Stadium but perhaps on Friday night, with over 9,000 away fans going, Phil Foden will be pointing towards them after a goal.

Key Stats

City have lost the last four away fixtures against Tottenham, failing to score a goal since they moved to the new Stadium.
Tottenham are unbeaten in the last four home games.
Man City haven’t lost in the last nine matches, all competitions.

Injuries of Note

Manchester City - Akanji is expected to be out with no timeline published yet, John Stones has returned to training but this game expected to come too early, Haaland is in full training and return date is expected soon and Ederson is expected to return this weekend.
Tottenham - James Maddision is due back for this game along with Lo Celso. Manor Solomon out till end of February, along with Alejo Veliz.
Tottenham are missing several players due to Afcon and the Asia Cup. Players include Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and Son Heung-Min.

City Set Up

Expect a similar lineup to that of Newcastle (A) with a couple changes. With injuries those changes are limited.
Predicted Eleven - Ederson, Gvardiol, Ake, Dias, Walker, Kovacic, Rodri, Grealish, Bernardo, Foden, Alvarez.
Potential Differences - Expect Grealish to return to the starting lineup. May see Haaland return up front and Kevin De Bruyne get his first full start since returning from injury.

Score Predictions

Tottenham 1 - 2 Manchester City
Difficult to predict a clean sheet given our struggles in duels that Spurs excel at, with most of the first team players returning for Spurs we can expect a tough and tight game. First choice defenders are back for Spurs. Will not be easy to score but I expect a week of training away will boost the team along with the momentum of the Newcastle win.

2. The Future of Kevin De Bruyne

Manchester City are exploring a contract extension for Kevin De Bruyne for his loyalty to the club. Another two years added on would take him to 2027 and 35 years old. How would his progression look in the team?

How has his role changed up to now?

Starting out at Genk he played mainly at left midfield, including some appearances in the center. In the league winning season (2010/11) De Bruyne contributed five goals and eleven assists as a left midfielder.
His move to Werder Bremen saw him continue to shine with increase minutes (3,086) and a more central role as their attacking midfielder. Improving on his recent tallies to ten goals and ten assists in all competitions.
Wolfsburg was next, continuing as the attacking midfielder and becoming the dominate player in the league (2014/15) with ten goals and twenty one assists. He pushed them to two cup wins (DFB-Pokal & DFL-Supercup).
Moving to Manchester City, in the 2015/16 season he played all across the front line as a winger on both sides and as an attacking midfielder. Closer to being a ten in middle or driving the team creatively out wide. The physicality he brought is incredibly underrated, it isn’t just the ability on the ball but doing it at such pace with the strength he has.
With the arrival of Pep Guardiola, his use out wide slowly disappeared as he became predominately a central attacking midfielder. Shifting over the years from a ten to an eight.
By the time we reached the treble season (22/23) KDB had become a complete eight in this team that could play as a second striker, float around the pitch in all spaces to create chances, a monster at ball striking and carrying, and an eye for any pass before someone could think about it. As much as he does his very best work from the right hand half space, KDB was impacting the team all across the pitch.

What did we see against Newcastle United?

We only got twenty one minutes against the magpies but already you get the sense some of his best performances are to come this season. He covered all across the pitch, popping up on the left hand side at some points, providing a lot of width and crossing on the right. Alvarez had a number he should have converted.
His interplay with Foden was a joy to watch, with only a little amount of time on pitch together they dove tailed well between the wide and central areas.
Scoring his equalizer by driving the ball from deep and using the ball striking ability very few have. He doesn’t shoot through a defenders legs by mistake, nor does it hit the side net by chance.
Creating from deep centrally, the game winning goal with a pass most never saw come. Trippier didn’t but Bobb did.

Who are the examples to look at?

Trent-Alexander Arnold ability to play progressive and key passes from a deep central position in the premier league this season, you’d be foolish think De Bruyne wouldn’t thrive at that. Decisive balls in behind for chances as well as progressive passes up the pitch and breaking presses.
David Silva also played right across the midfield for Manchester City, attacking out wide in his first few seasons at the club. His role then shifted with Pep to remove his play out wide, being the deeper lying central play maker that can float out wide (continuing that at Real Sociedad). Sound familiar?
Tony Kroos is a player that has never had the pace nor physicality De Bruyne had driving with the ball but that has never stopped him being one of the best in world. He contributes to the team both in the build up, deep lying as a play maker and moving further forward as a central chance creator in front of a block. Controlling the tempo of games and when to progress the ball.

How does the current team fit into that?

Interplay with players on our team will feed into his game, players like Foden, Bobb and Bernardo Silva will allow each other to freely float around the pitch. Exposing the space rather than being tied down to it.
Runners and ball carriers in the team has only increased this past transfer window. Grealish was a big part of that the previous season along with Haaland making the runs in behind. Not only do we have those two but your adding in Doku, Nunes, Kovacic, Bobb and Gvardiol to that mix.

What to expect moving forward

For a long time, Kevin De Bruyne has not had this much variety of assists to pick from. You’d have to go back to 2017/18. To play balls in behind to Doku and Bobb. To progress the team up the pitch with Gvardiol pushing up the left side. Play balls in behind for Haaland. Fire balls into the feet of Foden on the half turn. So many options to play.
The idea of a deep lying playmaker De Bruyne is a long term evolution, as we saw against Newcastle his physicality is there and will be for the rest of the season. But the way he tells the team to calm down, pick their moment and not be phased by the pressure. This is exactly what the team need right now and will see him thrive in deep positions.
Time to see how close he can get to the the top assists record in the premier league and if he finishes this season with the most. De Bruyne is only seven behind.

There is a great video exploring this by Nobbins, link included here.

3. Omar Berrada Leaves to Man Utd

Landing on Saturday night was a huge scoop for David Ornstein at The Athletic, Omar Berrada will cross the divide of Manchester. Resigning from his role as Chief Football Operations Offer at City Football Group, he will in the summer become the new CEO of Manchester United Football Club.

Omar Berrada is not due to start in his new role until the summer, covered by MEN, which leaves City to decide on his replacement at the club.

Thoughts on Omar leaving

For him personally this is a logical next step to take in a corporate job when there is no space for promotion. Unless another member above you moves on, you’re not becoming the CEO. Step up in compensation, pressure and role. Local move, so not having to relocate your family.
Our current CEO is Ferran Soriano, he is not expected to be leaving anytime soon and along with there being talk that his long term successor would be Roel De Vries (Former Senior Vice-President of Nissan), there wouldn’t be a pathway to that role for Omar anytime soon.

How will City view this?

Any great organisation is not built and dependent on one person. You have built a great structure, done succession planning and developed talented people to move through it. This brings new ideas, a fresh change to the leaders and chance to focus on what matters in the business. Gardening leave in place and set up well to avoid any confidential information being passed on in the near term.
The club have lost many key members to other clubs, each time they have replaced the talent with the next group of upcoming executives and leaders. Paul Mclaren, former Head Regional Scout, left to become Head of UK Scouting U13 - U18 for Newcastle United. Joe Shields, former Head of Academy Recruitment, left to Southampton and then to Chelsea as Director of Recruitment and Talent. Your best assets at the time will always leave as you continue to develop more of them.

That club being Utd

This has to be something that the club will think about further, given there is little to no off-field relationship between the clubs.
I am sure if it was another top European club knocking, the feeling from the fan base would be much different, we have lost plenty of great people to other clubs in key positions before Omar.
This may rear its head in future transfer windows, has our targets been discussed and passed on? Will other players in the City team be targeted? Will only know in time.

Moving Forward

Can expect in the mean time they cover the role internally with current executive team, then eventually bring in a replacement that is most likely internal.
There will be plenty of media coverage spinning to hype up his arrival at Utd, coming in at a senior position as CEO, for City it is only business as usual.
The only take away from a FFP point of view, and it would not be a concrete one, is that a new owner coming in and interviewing Omar would be silly to not ask him about the case. The outcome expected and his time at City. They must be confident that outcome will not be a negative one for him to be hired. As one of the leads of many commercial deals, any punishment would involve him.

Will be interesting to see how it goes for him, no doubt as all fans know, this is a huge task ahead and won’t be fixed within a year. Fascinated to see if they come after any City players in the summer…

4. Transfer News Round Up

Man City remain interested in Savio, who is on loan at Girona FC from ES Troyes AC, for a move in the summer. More here.
Right wing is an important spot for Man City in the summer, targets include Pedro Neto, Savio and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. More here.
Stefan Ortega and Sergio Gomez are both attracting interest from other clubs, could depart in the summer. More here.
Kalvin Phillips departure links continue to heat up. More here.

Later this week will be our look ahead to the transfers this summer, looking at our current squad make up, the holes we have, players who progression has surprised us and what to target. That includes positions and names. We will even explore the outgoings and whether our on loan players could factor into the 24/25 team.

5. Interesting News and Links

Manchester City dominate the Dubai Global Soccer Awards 14th Edition. Erling Haaland won Best Men’s Player, Pep Guardiola won Best Coach, Khaldoon Al Mubarak won Best President and plenty more were given out to City players that night.
John Stones has returned to Man City training following his ankle injury, against Everton, more here.
Football Benchmark have published their European champions report for 2024, covering the financial and business side of the top football clubs. Including plenty of detail around Manchester City here.
Manchester City FC and SL Benfica lead the rest of the world with the most academy player transitions since the 2018/19 season. The Club set out with the aim to build the best academy since the 2008 takeover. Rankings included below.

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