The Scottish Mail on Sunday

De Bruyne does damage as Haaland is crowded out

Belgian bursts Bournemout­h bubble to send Pep’s men top

- By Jack Gaughan AT ETIHAD STADIUM

THIS newest incarnatio­n of Manchester City is 10 really good footballer­s... and the other bloke who does things around the box that will decide more important games than this one.

And it isn’t Erling Haaland. Instead, it’s Kevin De Bruyne. Europe’s best midfielder for a while now, City are creating an even better version — more goals than ever and, it seems, the major beneficiar­y of Haaland’s introducti­on into this astonishin­g team.

De Bruyne is increasing­ly playing up alongside the striker as Pep Guardiola finds fresh ways to make sure his protagonis­t is as close to goal as possible, evidenced when sauntering to bend in the second. Guardiola was muttering to himself about there not being enough space for De Bruyne to execute the acute finish but then, De Bruyne is De Bruyne, a master of angles.

City are, within reason, letting him do what he wants, be it carrying possession from deep or whipping crosses from the right.

He wanders off to the left, to Phil Foden’s delight when the winger latched on to a through ball that nutmegged poor Chris Mepham and went in via two deflection­s as City scored their third goal eight minutes before half-time — and a late own goal from Jefferson Lerma, forced by Joao Cancelo, capped a comfortabl­e win.

‘(With De Bruyne) before it was just about assists, assists, assists,’ said Guardiola. ‘Now he’s enjoying winning games and scoring goals.’

Bournemout­h — heavily praised by Guardiola beforehand — decamped to their own box right from the off, conceded territory and hoped to remain compact enough to frustrate the champions, yet class told rather quickly.

Ahead inside 19 minutes through Ilkay Gundogan, and with quite a few chances before then, City swatted away newly promoted opposition with minimal fuss.

Rather less emotional than his last goal in front of the Etihad’s South Stand on that dramatic May afternoon, Gundogan’s opener was a product of Haaland.

The Norwegian new signing hadn’t actually touched the ball until then yet came to life when holding off two challenges, rolling two defenders to complete a one-two and assist for Gundogan, who did the rest.

That is what City are getting from Haaland. He will not be involved for long spells — and the striker not touching it for almost 20 minutes in this team, with this amount of domination, does feel bizarre on the surface — but when he is, they click.

Guardiola wasn’t concerned, however, that his star striker failed to find the net on his home debut.

‘He plays the most difficult job in the world,’ the Spaniard said of the 22-year-old.

‘When you are a striker and in the defensive areas, teams like Bournemout­h have three central defenders and two players in front and you are in the middle, how can you survive in that?

‘It’s so difficult. We know it. We’ll find many situations. It’s just a question of time. The right moments, the right movements, and with the quality of the players we have behind him to assist him we’ll find him. I don’t have any doubts about that.

‘We have seen it in the past with other teams. We have to be patient.’

City did not need a goal from Haaland on the day — but the striker seemed excited enough afterwards, as he Tweeted: ‘So nice to play my first game at the Etihad in front of the fans. No better feeling!’

Haaland’s happiness with the win was shared by his sometimes hard-to-please manager.

‘The team did a really good performanc­e against a team that is well structured defensivel­y and offensivel­y as well with good patterns,’ added Guardiola.

‘They defend so deep, so narrow, you have to go outside. We started well with three or four corners after just six or seven minutes, lots of chances.

‘It was a warm day. It was not easy for so many reasons but we made a really, really good performanc­e.’

De Bruyne, meanwhile, barely wasted a pass, completing 98 per cent of his passes by the time they were off for a second drinks break with about 20 minutes to go.

He is dribbling with purpose and left with a goal and an assist. Last season’s 19 strikes were the most impressive numbers of his career and those will only improve this time as a result of what Haaland brings.

Haaland bounced off a couple of markers on halfway in the build-up to De Bruyne’s goal, which saw Bournemout­h back off and allow him to curl with the outside of his boot into the far corner in 31 minutes.

Foden’s fortunate third was also thanks to ingenuity from the fulcrum, who could end up with the captain’s armband when the squad take to the ballots over the coming weeks as they choose Fernandinh­o’s replacemen­t.

There were occasional forays by Bournemout­h into City’s half, but their attempted counter-attacks —

always the best way to hurt Guardiola’s side — were largely nullified.

Their boss Scott Parker said: ‘We played against a world-class team that can execute in any given moment.

‘I said before the game we need to have 11 men with 10 out of 10 performanc­es and to ride our luck, we’re going to have to take the very few chances we’re going to get along with every other team that comes here.

‘You have to be clinical. We didn’t manage to do that and then the quality they have shone through.

‘After the goals go in you could be on the end of one, but I was pleased with the team in the way they stuck at it with good endeavour, good personalit­y and good courage. We can be pleased with that.

‘Our season is not this. Man City away is not a team that will define our season.

‘This is a game we need to analyse, of course, and we’ll do that and see where we can improve and get better. We’ll dust ourselves down and go again.

‘Overall, though, I was pleased with the way we went about it and what I saw from my players. We left everything out there.’

However, he will be buoyed by how the Cherries managed to contain the Premier League champions a little more readily after the break.

Rico Lewis, 17, was afforded a debut for City after impressing on their pre-season tour in the US and there was a long, pointed chorus of Bernardo Silva’s name when the little Portuguese was introduced from the bench.

Barcelona finding a few million quid down the back of the sofa might be the only thing that can ruin Guardiola’s August.

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 ?? ?? CLASS: City skipper Kevin De Bruyne slots home his side’s second
CLASS: City skipper Kevin De Bruyne slots home his side’s second

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