Live Broadcast, December 4th: Souness said on the show that De Bruyne’s absence is the reason for Manchester City’s unstable performance so far this season. Souness also believes there will be no complacency among City players as Guardiola will not let that happen.
He said: “I think it’s silly to talk about City’s weaknesses now. They are a real team with great players. What great players and great teams do is they respond to defeats. We even It’s not Christmas yet and they are third in the table.
For me they are still favorites but I have a fantastic feeling about my previous team (Liverpool). I said at the start of the season that to win the Premier League you have to be in front of Liverpool.
The reason why I think so is because Liverpool have a lot of scoring options, and if your team has a lot of scoring options, it means you can win games when you’re not in good form. “
Defending champions Manchester City were five points ahead at this stage last season and De Bruyne will be out for much of the 2023-24 season.
City have had some unusual out-of-control performances both domestically and in the Champions League, but Souness doesn’t believe this is due to complacency. He said: “Yes, City are conceding goals, which they don’t normally make, and their best player in the last five or six years, Kevin De Bruyne, is out injured but he will be back.
If there’s a criticism to be made of them, it’s that they don’t play with the same intensity. We were talking about Sheffield United. At the bottom of the table, small differences can be decisive, and I think that’s the case for Manchester City now.
Whether it’s in the Champions League or for other reasons, they’re not nearly as good as they usually are in terms of pressing, passing, shooting, and aggression, but you’d be foolish to think they’re not.
You can’t say complacency is to blame because they have a manager who won’t allow that to happen, and the reason is, apart from his actions and words from his mouth, they have a very strong squad that they can rotate.
He can say to anyone: ‘If you’re not in form and we have someone who’s in form, you’re going to have to sit there and watch games for a few weeks. ’”