Pep Guardiola must start Ruben Dias in Manchester City’s upcoming Premier League match against Brentford.
After beating Burnley 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, the Citizens will be back in action on Monday night to take on Brentford away from home.
In terms of what City’s starting XI could look like for this game, one figure who didn’t feature against Burnley that we feel should be in from the beginning against the Bees is Dias.
Dias must start against Brentford
Dias’ previous match saw him complete the full 90 minutes in City’s 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup.
In that game, the 26-year-old made four tackles, four clearances and one interception, as well as not getting dribbled past on even one occasion.
This display ultimately earned the defender an overall match rating of 7.4/10 from SofaScore.
With 17 Premier League games under his belt this season, the centre-back has racked up more clearances (51) than any other City player, as well as having the joint-highest total of blocks (19).
In addition to that, only two other City players have won more aerial duels than Dias (20), which further highlights how much of a capable defensive figure he is.
Bearing in mind how Ivan Toney and Neal Maupay have scored a goal each in both of Brentford’s two previous league games against Nottingham Forest and Spurs, this shows how crucial it could be for City to have Dias in the team and hopefully keep the two Bees strikers quiet.
With all of that taken into account, we feel that it should be an easy decision for Guardiola to put Dias in the starting XI for Monday’s game and hope that he can help his side walk away with three points and take a step closer to regaining the title.
