YOU might think Arsenal will be making plans to deal with Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva or Sergio Aguero in tomorrow’s Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
De Bruyne has 18 assists for Manchester City this season after all, Silva has 10 and Aguero has banged in 29 goals.
But to my mind, the player they should be man-marking is Fernandinho.
Man-marking a holding midfielder may seem odd – he’s not as eye-catching, not as sexy as De Bruyne, Silva or Aguero – but he is the one that makes City tick.
Fernandinho’s pass success percentage in the league is 90 per cent and if you can stop him you can go some way to stopping City.
As we know, they don’t play long-ball football so everything goes through the midfield and often it is the Brazilian picking the ball up off the defenders and feeding the likes of De Bruyne, Silva and Sterling to do the damage.
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It can be too late once that trio are on the ball so Arsenal would do well to stop the supply line.
The Brazilian makes on average 84 passes per league game. That is more than any other City player. De Bruyne for example makes an average of 73.
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And the two players Ferandinho has passed to most this season are Silva and De Bruyne. He provides the ammo for Silva and De Bruyne to hurt the opposition.
Of course, it is not just in an attacking sense that Fernandinho is key. He is vital to City in that he allows the rest of the players to do their thing by providing cover.
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Look at his average position in three recent matches on our pitch maps. No 25 hardly moves! But that is reassuring for his team-mates. They know where he will be.
City look to unlock the opposition using width, midfield runners, full-backs moving into midfield, all sorts of tricks and whizzing around. But the one thing that doesn’t change is Fernandinho’s position.
He is the epitome of a holding midfielder.
City are, of course, brilliant on the ball going forward. But equally impressive is their press when they lose possession. De Bruyne, Sterling, Silva and the rest close the opposition down at incredible speed.
They can do that because they know Fernandinho is the insurance behind them in case the opposition find a way through.
I imagine Fernandinho is the first name on Pep Guardiola’s team-sheet.
The stats back it up. The Brazilian has started 26 out of 27 matches in the league this season.
The only game he didn’t start was against West Ham at home. That was the fixture before the Manchester derby and he was already on four bookings. Another yellow in the West Ham match and he would have missed the clash against City’s arch-rivals.
So Guardiola left him out. That shows how key he is to the manager!
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When asked recently if he would get into the current City team, Guardiola said: “No way. Fernandinho is much, much better.”
He is a huge reason the team has been able to move on without missing the talents of Yaya Toure, once City’s heartbeat.
He reminds me of Sergio Busquets, Barcelona’s linchpin over the last decade while they have had all their success.
Last season Fernandinho missed six games and City shipped 12 goals, including four against Leicester and four against Everton. No wonder Guardiola was happy to offer the 32-year-old a contract up to 2020 which was signed last month.
He is that vital. Arsenal would do well to take note tomorrow.
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