Cesc Fabregas was disappointed by one Manchester City player in particular in Sunday’s draw with Liverpool.
It’s been a very rare midweek off for Manchester City with no Champions League action or Premier League games in hand to play.
Though it’s no doubt come as a welcome relief to Pep Guardiola’s battle-weary players, it has allowed Sunday’s stalemate with Liverpool to linger.
City can usually move swiftly on from any disappointment by hammering their next opponents but instead, conversation has remained on the result.
The Blues did take the lead through John Stones but Jurgen Klopp’s side fought back with an Alexis Mac Allister penalty.
Liverpool dominated after the break and hardly allowed City to venture out of their own half.
It was a difficult game and City were lucky to escape with a point which keeps them firmly in the title race, if behind Liverpool and leaders Arsenal.
Cesc Fabregas believes Kevin De Bruyne was particularly ineffective at Anfield.
Cesc Fabregas on Kevin De Bruyne
Speaking on Planet Premier League, Fabregas said: “It was a fantastic game to watch.
“The energy, the quality, the ambition to go on forward and win the game. Sometimes, it felt City were Liverpool and Liverpool were City in a way.
“City were defending and trying to get Liverpool on counters. Manchester City suffered a lot because they didn’t have the ball.
“They didn’t know what to do when they had it. Kevin De Bruyne went missing because when he doesn’t have the ball he doesn’t like it.
“Phil Foden same even though he could have scored a goal or two. It was a quality game.”
A rare bad day for De Bruyne
It says so much of De Bruyne’s ridiculously high standards that a game in which he picked up a genius assist has been labelled as one of his worst.
Not many players would have the vision, nerve and quality to pull off the corner technique that teed up Stones’ goal but the brilliant Belgian does.
It was a sensational piece of play, straight from the training ground, and shows how valuable De Bruyne is even when not at his best.
It was a rare bad day for the £54m man, but it was the first since his return from injury, and he still took his tally to 13 assists in 12 matches.
The only shame is that De Bruyne has now picked up a minor knock and has not been named in the Belgium squad as a result. It makes him a big doubt for Saturday’s FA Cup tie with Newcastle.
