Manchester City: Guardiola must start Ruben Dias against Brighton | OneFootball

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Football FanCast

·22 October 2021

Manchester City: Guardiola must start Ruben Dias against Brighton

Article image:Manchester City: Guardiola must start Ruben Dias against Brighton

After an impressive 5-1 win over Club Brugge in midweek, Manchester City are back in Premier League action this weekend with a trip to face Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday evening, with the Seagulls fourth in the table just one place and two points behind Pep Guardiola’s side.

On the chalkboard

Looking ahead of the match against Graham Potter’s high-flying side at the Amex Stadium, one City player who we feel should definitely be in the starting XI on Saturday evening is Ruben Dias.


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After coming on as a substitute in the second half of City’s previous Premier League match against Burnley, the 24-year-old centre-back played the full 90 minutes in their hefty midweek win in Belgium.

During the match against Brugge, he made five tackles, three interceptions and four clearances, as well as winning five out of his eight ground duels and racking up an average passing accuracy ratio of 90%. Those returns ultimately earned him an impressive overall match rating of 7.2/10, making him the third-highest rated City player who started the game according to SofaScore.

This game saw Dias, who has been described as “fantastic” by Jose Mourinho, show why he is so important to the Premier League champions and why he should be in the starting XI against Brighton at the weekend to possibly terrify their attacking players.

Should Ruben Dias start against Brighton?

City signed Dias back last year from Portuguese club Benfica for a reported fee of £65m. In his debut season in England, the £67.5m-rated defender (according to Transfermarkt), made 32 appearances in the Premier League which earned him the Player of the Season award, an impressive feat considering it was his first campaign in the division.

With City knowing that defeat tomorrow would see Brighton leapfrog them in the table, as well as potentially losing ground on Chelsea and Liverpool, Guardiola must include the imperious 24-year-old in his starting XI on the south coast.

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