Kevin de Bruyne’s impact in Manchester City cannot be overstated. He is the playmaker in the team and ensures Haaland gets the goals. Manchester City has a great squad on the pitch and on the bench.
Indeed. Yes, let's see how Man City has performed since the start of the season without some of their key players, especially Kevin de Bruyne. No matter how good the replacement, de Bruyne's position and contribution cannot be replaced. His skills as a playmaker at Man City are truly extraordinary and cannot be replaced by any other player there. That's why since De Bruyne was absent due to injury, Man City's performance, especially Haaland and also several other players, has not been as optimal as before. It cannot be denied that he is still a key player for the club.
That's why, now that de Bruyne is starting to return to the match and may be joining in the UCL match later, Man City's hopes have increased quite a bit. However, we cannot be sure whether De Bruyne's performance will really be the same as before or not, because after all, a player who suffers a long injury will still have an impact on his performance.
Their midfield was key last season and if we now think about who is left of that midfield, both are gone. Gundogan and De Bruyne. Since the two controlled the whole Manchester City game and also scored goals and gave countless assists, it doesn't come as a surprise that now when both of them are absent the game is much worse than it was last season. I think this is probably the difficult task ever for Guardiola to find two successors for Gundogan and De Bruyne who are able to manage the Manchester City game on the same level.