Manchester City are represented in the latest Premier League team of the week that has been selected by BBC pundit Garth Crooks.
Actually Garth is now down as a ‘Football Analyst’ these days, a posh term for a pundit then!
The performances by Vincent Kompany and Kevin de Bruyne in the two nil victory over Leicester City at the weekend at the King Power Stadium was enough to earn them a place in the side alongside the other, in the opinion of the former Spurs striker anyway, most impressive performers in the topflight over the latest weekend.
I think we’ll already know ourselves, and not just based on the latest performance, why Crooks, we’ll also not argue with it, selected the duo as part of his team but explaining his choice he told the BBC.
Kompany:
‘What is the game coming to when a manager, or a team for that matter, begin to rely on a sending-off to ensure a victory? That seemed to be the situation, as far as Leicester and their manager Claude Puel were concerned, when Vincent Kompany clearly brought down Jamie Vardy during the game’s opening exchanges. The tackle itself was not the issue, but whether the City captain was the last man or not. Some are in no doubt that Kompany should have been dismissed, but I take a different view. John Stones, the nearest City defender to Vardy, was close enough and quick enough to make a difference and referee Graham Scott thought so too. Would the game have been affected by Kompany’s departure? Of course it would, but the whole point of a sending-off is that it is used to administer justice. It is also the opinion of the referee that counts – not the managers’ or players’ – and certainly not the opinion of the pundits. There are moments, I must admit, when a referee is the only person in the ground who knows why a player has been sent off and that is equally nauseating. We should all be in no doubt why justice has been served. Nevertheless, Kompany survived the incident and the match. Kompany is a wonderful professional. However, the Belgium international will know he must prove he can play a full and uninterrupted season in the hurly burly of the Premier League before manager Pep Guardiola can trust him to lead this marvellous City side into the future.’
de Bruyne:
‘If I had to announce my player of the season now instead of in May, it would go to Kevin de Bruyne in a heartbeat. I do not think a single soul would disagree. Martin Keown expressed it perfectly when he said on Final Score that De Bruyne is ‘a wonderful artist painting beautiful strokes for others to reap the benefits and enjoy’. That summed it up for me. What we are seeing from Manchester City, and De Bruyne in particular, is art. Pele, the greatest player that ever lived, described football as the ‘beautiful game’. British football has always been about passion and commitment, but what we are witnessing with City is what can be only described as extraordinary beauty. Against Leicester, apart from a brief moment or two, City were always in control. Could we ever have a team of Englishmen playing for the national team in this fashion with such complete belief in themselves? Is there a De Bruyne in any of our young England teams that won the Under-20 and Under-17 World Cups recently? If there is, we need a system that allows these delicate flowers to blossom. De Bruyne took some time to mature into the player he is today. What he has at his disposal is a manager who can make him the best player in the world.’
It’s always good to see the club represented in this way, and well played to both for their recognition, but the most important thing about the weekend was of course the win.
Full Team:
Heurelho Gomes (Watford), Christian Kabasele (Watford), Shkodran Mustafi (Arsenal), Vincent Kompany (Manchester City), Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City), Paul Pogba (Manchester United), Mesut Ozil (Arsenal), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Callum Wilson (Bournemouth), Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal).
