Manchester City – Kevin De Bruyne reveals: Trained just ten minutes before the derby win against United
Manchester City recently won the city derby against United in a sovereign manner. And apparently without extensive preparation, as Kevin De Bruyne now reveals.
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne has revealed that the English champions’ preparation for the derby against Manchester United last weekend was limited to a ten-minute training session.
“Usually we have a tactical session the day before a game – based on how our opponents are playing,” De Bruyne told the MidMid Podcast and said: “But before the game against United Pep (Guardiola, City coach, d. Ed.) said: ‘We don’t know how they are going to play. We should let it come to us.’ And so we stopped training after ten minutes or so. “
De Bruyne: Guardiola “didn’t know what to do”
City finally triumphed 2-0 at Old Trafford in their city rivals last Saturday. Already at half-time a preliminary decision had been made after an own goal by Eric Bailly and the goal by Bernardo Silva.
De Bruyne added: “Pep often knows how our opponents will play. This time he didn’t, so he didn’t know what to do either. He didn’t know whether they would start with a back five or a back four, with a diamond formation in the middle or with three points. “
For United, after the 5-0 defeat against Liverpool at the end of October, it was the second bitter defeat against an arch-rival within a very short time. Sixth in the Premier League table, the Red Devils are already nine points behind leaders Chelsea, while City are three points behind the Blues in second place.