There’ll be no easing himself towards a life of semi-retirement in MLS or elsewhere for Kevin De Bruyne. Pep Guardiola has one last job for him and on the evidence of Manchester City’s come from behind 5-2 win over Crystal Palace, there’s no one better qualified for the task.
De Bruyne was brilliant. City needed him to be. A true false nine, his manipulation of space left the Crystal Palace back three bamboozled, creating the space for the likes of Omar Marmoush and Ilkay Gundogan to crash into. Given the latter was freed from defensive responsibility and empowered to make his third man darts into the box, there was a pleasantly retro vibe to City’s tactical makeup.
When the hosts clicked from the half hour mark onwards (best not to talk about the form before the half hour when they went down by two goals), there was little Palace could do. Oliver Glasner’s side are one of the Premier League’s form outfits, one who had not let in more than two goals in any game since Christmas and had only been beaten twice. When De Bruyne started weaving his wizardry, however, they had no answers. His dipping free kick halved the 2-0 deficit on 33 minutes, a header back across goal was shanked by Gundogan but drilled home by Marmoush. Back to goal early in the second half he had the sense of mind to flick the ball onwards for Mateo Kovacic to drill home the goal that had City in the lead.
Through it all, the passing was irresistible. A cross through the finest of gaps for Marmoush deserved an assist. So did many others. Holding court just outside the right corner of the penalty area, he seemed to manufacture time to assess his surroundings, wait for the run to come and deliver a ball to perfection.
This was the De Bruyne of the Before Haaland years, the central spoke around which the rest of the attack turned. Everyone eats offense, five goals and five scorers of them. Having tried a few different looks to his side since the big Norwegian suffered his near season-ending injury, Pep Guardiola looks to have found an attack that works.
Not before time either. The win moves City up to fourth, but if Chelsea and Newcastle United win their games in hand then the soon to be ousted kings of England will slip out of the Champions League qualification places. Their season still stands on a knife edge; it does not bear thinking about for them what might happen if De Bruyne simply slips down the performance level he has delivered for most of this season, let alone if he suffers another of the injuries that have spoiled his twilight years at City. His importance is as profound now as it has ever been.
All the more so given that the City defense always looked like it would demand the best from De Bruyne. The young full backs Nico O’Reilly and Rico Lewis were too easily dragged out of position, the latter punished when he lost track of Eberechi Eze six minutes in. Poor organisation right the way around allowed Chris Richards to head home from a corner. Only the Premier League’s first intervention of semi-automated offside technology denied Eze a second, the spur that convinced De Bruyne he’d need to take charge of this contest.
It is a worrying sign for City that they need the game to be saved by a 33-year-old whose body has been failing him. Still, a few more performances like this for De Bruyne and he can ride off into the sunset in heroic fashion.
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