{"id":289723,"date":"2023-10-02T21:19:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T21:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsloveme.com\/?p=289723"},"modified":"2023-10-02T21:19:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T21:19:07","slug":"jack-gaughan-de-bruyne-absence-hits-home-for-city-at-molineux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsloveme.com\/soccer\/jack-gaughan-de-bruyne-absence-hits-home-for-city-at-molineux\/","title":{"rendered":"JACK GAUGHAN: De Bruyne absence hits home for City at Molineux"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>JACK GAUGHAN: It was the day that Kevin De Bruyne&#8217;s absence really hit home for Man City&#8230; Pep Guardiola needed him badly at Molineux<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Man City suffered their first defeat of league season against Wolves on Saturday<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>The title holders missed Kevin De Bruyne up against a stubborn Wolves defence<\/b><\/li>\n<li><strong>Mail Sport&#8217;s new WhatsApp Channel: Get the breaking news and exclusives here<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One day last week, Jack Grealish stole into a picture of Manchester City\u2019s five captains after Rodri told him to take Kevin De Bruyne\u2019s place while they waited for the Belgian.<\/p>\n<p>Grealish being Grealish, he happily smirked his way through the photo call. De Bruyne eventually turned up to take his rightful place and will do so again when he returns from injury, months from now.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until Saturday that the reality of how much City miss him hit home. Forgetting De Bruyne has been relatively easy as Pep Guardiola\u2019s side won every week, but they needed him at Molineux. Badly.<\/p>\n<p>And they will yearn for the Premier League\u2019s finest midfielder on plenty more occasions until his hamstring problem clears up, probably in the new year. He has that indefinable ability to take games away from stubborn opponents. De Bruyne does things that alter the course of matches in a way nobody else can.<\/p>\n<p>Watching wave after wave of fairly ponderous attacks, it was easy to imagine De Bruyne taking a ball 30 yards from goal, pinging it over the top for Erling Haaland and City breaking Wolves\u2019 resistance in an instant. De Bruyne has always given Guardiola\u2019s men a gear change.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/01\/20\/76046045-0-image-a-7_1696188703248.jpg\" height=\"456\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Manchester CIty failed to find a cutting edge in their 2-1 defeat to Wolves on Saturday<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/01\/20\/76045971-0-image-m-8_1696188760258.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Premier League title holders missed the influential Kevin De Bruyne, who is out with a hamstring injury<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/01\/20\/76045965-0-image-a-9_1696188834114.jpg\" height=\"412\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Pep Guardiola, who was banned from the touchline at Molineux, was also without the suspended Rodri in midfield<\/p>\n<p>He is not there to win every game for them like Haaland; he is there to win clunky, bitty, weary ones just like this. Rodri\u2019s absence presented a problem, too. Wolves broke so easily, highlighting what a huge figure the Spaniard is for City these days.<\/p>\n<p>But a fit De Bruyne with a working radar would surely have won this game for City and those are the fine margins in a title race that is shaping up nicely.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, Wolves were superb. Craig Dawson and Max Kilman shepherded Haaland masterfully, reducing the Norwegian to 15 touches. And it was the sort of blood and thunder day \u2014 with vitriol hurled at the recently departed Matheus Nunes provoking an improved Wolves display \u2014 that can inject life into Gary O\u2019Neil\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The criticism (of O\u2019Neil) has definitely been unfair,\u2019 said Kilman. \u2018People can\u2019t see behind the scenes and the amount of work him and his team are doing, how they\u2019re setting us up tactically.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The quality of training has been phenomenal and it was a matter of time before we started picking up results. Gary got it spot on here. We want to learn from a top coach.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018This match was unbelievable from start to finish. With Haaland, you know he\u2019s one of the best in the world. We had to be on it.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>And they were. O\u2019Neil stuck Matheus Cunha on Mateo Kovacic, filling in for Rodri as the No 6, and Wolves let Ruben Dias have the ball all afternoon. Dias didn\u2019t do an awful lot with it, to Guardiola\u2019s frustration in the stands as he served a one-match touchline ban. He seems to think he will be there a few more times as well under the new laws.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s not a big issue, it\u2019s not a problem, they made the rules,\u2019 said the City boss. \u2018When I was at Barcelona, I was the least physical player ever, but maybe I was one of the most booked players. Always because I talk and talk and talk. As a manager it is the same. I say something if I think it\u2019s an injustice or something I don\u2019t like. I have to control it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018When you see things you don\u2019t like, then I will say. I\u2019d like to control (myself) but I cannot assure you 100 per cent that I will.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/01\/20\/76045967-0-image-a-10_1696188901175.jpg\" height=\"625\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Wolves secured the sort of blood and thunder victory that could inject life into manager Gary O&#8217;Neil&#8217;s tenure<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/01\/20\/76045969-0-image-m-12_1696188976790.jpg\" height=\"467\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>A superb defensive display limited Premier League top scorer Erling Haaland to just 15 touches throughout the 90 minutes<\/p>\n<p>Then came a measured swipe at the league\u2019s officiating, more in the tone of delivery than the content. City and Wolves were both aghast at Craig Pawson\u2019s refereeing. \u2018We know each other quite well,\u2019 Guardiola added. \u2018They know me but I know them, that\u2019s for sure.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>City seemed to be affected by Guardiola\u2019s absence from the technical area but more pertinent was Wolves\u2019 game plan, and midfielder Pedro Neto was key \u2014 doing all the work himself for the first goal when racing free of Nathan Ake.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I should have stopped the counter-attacks,\u2019 Ake rued. \u2018I could have done much better on a few occasions. I will definitely look at myself before anyone else. We have to recover before Leipzig (on Wednesday) and Arsenal.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We are hard on ourselves but we know nothing is going to change now. It\u2019s happened. The only thing we can do is focus on the next one.<\/p>\n<h3><span><span>MATCH FACTS<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span>WOLVES\u00a0<\/span>(3-4-3):\u00a0Sa 7; Kilman 8, Dawson 8.5, Toti 7; Semedo 7, Lemina 7.5, Joao Gomes 8 (Traore 67, 6), Ait-Nouri 7 (Doherty 74, 6); Neto 8, Cunha 7.5 (Silva 86), Hwang 7.5 (Jonny 86)<\/p>\n<p>Subs not used: Bentley, Bueno, Kalajdzic, Sarabia, Hodge<\/p>\n<p><span>Unused subs<\/span>: Bueno, Kalajdzic, Sarabia, Bentley, Hodge<\/p>\n<p><span>Goals<\/span>: Dias 13&#8242; (OG), Hwang 66&#8242;<\/p>\n<p><span>Booked<\/span>: Hwang, Lemina, Neto, Sa<\/p>\n<p><span>Manager<\/span>: Gary O&#8217;Neil<\/p>\n<p><span>MAN CITY\u00a0<\/span>(4-1-4-1): Ederson 6; Walker 6, Akanji 5, Dias 5, Ake 5 (Grealish 80); Kovacic 5.5 (Phillips 65, 6); Foden 5.5, Alvarez 7, Nunes 6 (Bobb 46, 6), Doku 6; Haaland 5<\/p>\n<p>Subs not used: Ortega, Carson, Gomez, Gvardiol, Lewis<\/p>\n<p><span>Unused subs<\/span>: Carson, Ortega, Gomez, Gvardiol, Lewis<\/p>\n<p><span>Goals<\/span>: Alvarez 58&#8242;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>Booked<\/span>: Walker, Doku, Alvarez<\/p>\n<p><span>Manager<\/span>: Pep Guardiola<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12581921\/JACK-GAUGHAN-Kevin-Bruyne-Man-City-Pep-Guardiola-Molineux.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JACK GAUGHAN: It was the day that Kevin De Bruyne&#8217;s absence really hit home for Man City&#8230; Pep Guardiola needed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>JACK GAUGHAN: De Bruyne absence hits home for City at Molineux - Sports Love Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsloveme.com\/soccer\/jack-gaughan-de-bruyne-absence-hits-home-for-city-at-molineux\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JACK GAUGHAN: De Bruyne absence hits home for City at Molineux - Sports Love Me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JACK GAUGHAN: It was the day that Kevin De Bruyne&#8217;s absence really hit home for Man City&#8230; 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