Twenty games, or around2000 minutes. Thats the amount of game time Ilkay Gundogan needed to get back to his best.
Speaking at the start of December, Marti Perarnau, the authorwho charted Pep Guardiolas time at Bayern Munich with incredible detail, declared that Gundogan was not in good shape, but that the midfielder could arrive in March and April at a very good level if he were to play roughly 20 matches over Christmas and beyond.
Hes not fit, hes not in good shape, Perarnau told the 93:20 podcast. But he understands very well the tempo of the play that the team needs at each moment, like David Silva.
I think he needs 20 more matches in Ian Desmond Jersey his legs. He hasnt played too many matches in the last three years.
I hope in 20 matches we will see a very good Gundogan.
He has played in17 games since that interview, a rough total of1,150 minutes, and the evidence suggests Perarnau was right.
Gundogans two-goal, man-of-the-match performance against Basel in midweek was a reminder of the form he was starting to produce last season, before a serious knee injury forced him to mi s roughly 10 of his 18 months as a City player.
"I love to play for this club, for this manager, with these team-mates, its just fun," Gundogansaid after thegame in Switzerland. "Every single guy understands, is feeling it, and can see it that we have a very special group, with a very special atmosphere."
He is finally DJ LeMahieu Jersey starting to playhis role inthat group,the role expected of him when he signed from Boru sia Dortmund in 2016.
After all, he was the very first signing of the Guardiola era, designed to become in and help the Catalanimpose his fast pa sing stylein English football. As Perarnau notes, Gundogan understands the flow of a game just as David Silva does.
But, thanks to his injury, in his 18 months in Manchester he has only fleetingly shown his best qualities.
The German's first period at City, between his belated debut on September 14, 2016 and injury exactly three months later, had as many highs as it did lows. Standing in for either David Silva or Kevin De Bruyne, he dovetailed well with whichever man he played alongside, helping to establish Citys po se sion game. He even chipped in with doubles against Barcelona and West Brom, his knack for arriving in the box at the right moment surprising even those who had watched him closely in the Bundesliga.
But Guardiola, perhaps too confident in his sides ability, was rampingup his tactical plans during this period, attemptingto play all three of his creative midfielders at once, with Fernandinho and a three-man defence behind them. The Bluesmanaged to dominate po se Tony Wolters Jersey sionbut as a result of failures elsewherethe experiment rarely looked convincing. In truth, none of the three midfielders looked at their best, either.
So much so that when Gundogan was ruled out for the season, in the very first game after Guardiola simplified his plans after a bruising defeat at Leicester, it was seen, in the coldest terms, a ble sing in disguise: with an uncomplicated back four in place, Gundogans injury also deprived Guardiola of the temptation to German Marquez Jersey cram three creative midfielders into the same line-up.
Guardiola had worked out how to control games with just De Bruyne and Silva by the time Gundogan returned last September, and thanks to their performances and his own physical limitation, the German had to wait for his opportunities.
He was handed his first start in the EFL Cup in September, but a nasty kick to the ankle hampered his progre s and he did not start again for five weeks.
Since then, the end of October, he has often been called upon to stand infor Silva.
No City player, going back to when Silva first signed for the club in 2010, has managed to fill the Spaniards boots sufficiently, but Gundogan has shown that he can do a fine job; against Napoli away and Spurs at home he helped pull the strings of impre sive 4-2 and 4-1 victories respectively.
Those were open, fast-pacedgames but Gundogan also proved he can unlock tighter contests. Replacing De Bruyne, heprovided two clever a sists in two minutes to turn an FA Cup tie with Burnleyon its head.
Gundogancan suffer by being compared to his two influential team-mates his failure to find the last pa s in the recent draw at Burnley seemedworse because it is easily imagined that Silva would have delivered it but he would probably walk into any other midfield in the country on current form.
And certainly when Gerardo Parra Jersey he gets those 2000 minutes under his belt. With key fixtures in all four competitions coming up in the next few weeks, he appears to be hitting form at exactly the right time.
Other players are also returning from injuries and Bryan Shaw Jersey Gundogan, as predicted by Perarnau, looks set to have a key role in the final months of what could be a record-breaking season.
The team needs a very good Gundogan, Perarnau added. I think he can be at his highest level if he plays 20, 25 matches in December, January and February. He could arrive in March and April at a very good level. I think the team will need Gundogan.
Sources close to Guardiolas staff have intimated this week that he is finally back to his Dortmund best, but that level of performance could merely be a temporary pit-stop; given how most of his team-mates have progre sed under Guardiola's tutelage,you get the feeling thatGundogan's very bestis still to come.
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