'They'll Always Be Confident' - An Expert View On Man City
- Leicester City host Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday (12:30pm kick-off)
- Sam Lee from The Athletic has previewed the fixture for LCFC TV
- He believes Man City are better prepared for Leicester's threats this season
- Live coverage is available from 11:30am across LCFC.com and @LCFC social media
Champions Man City have been boosted by the arrivals of Erling Haaland, Manuel Akanji and Kalvin Phillips among others in the summer. Despite their general dominance of English football over past seasons, Leicester have secured three victories over the Citizens since 2018.
Lee, though, is confident that work done in the summer market has strengthened Man City even further and made them more resilient to tests such as the one posed by the Foxes. The two sides meet at King Power Stadium in the Premier League's 12:30pm kick-off on Saturday.
"They’ll always be confident," Lee told LCFC TV Matchday Live show, which will provide live and free coverage of the clash from 11:30am. "It’s that fine line between respecting what the opponent can do but being confident, nonetheless. It is true, especially when it’s Leicester.
"The last game at the King Power between these teams was ages ago. It’s more than a year ago. Things were different for both teams then. I remember Man City did well to win and Leicester played quite well.
"That threat on the counter… if Man City do have issues like they had at Newcastle or Liverpool, if that starts to happen against Leicester, Leicester don’t even need you to be poor to generate those opportunities. They can do it on the break without you making that many mistakes.
"They’re so good at making those combinations. Obviously, Leicester are in good form now themselves. Man City will be confident. They won’t want it be an open game, but if it is, players like [Phil] Foden, [Kevin] De Bryune, Haaland, [Jack] Grealish… with players like that to run into space, it’ll be an interesting one.
"Guardiola won’t want it to be an up and down game. He’ll want them to be in control, but if there were spaces to run into, this year, I think you’d back Man City as much as you’d back Leicester in terms of that specific type of game."
Haaland has netted 22 goals in 16 matches in all competitions for Man City this term - making headlines around the globe and offering a frightening glimpse into the sort of success the Etihad Stadium club could be on the verge of achieving. There are injury thoughts concerning the Norwegian star ahead of this weekend's visit to Leicester, though.
"He is a phenomenon," Lee added. "Everyone can see his finishing ability. Guardiola said before the Dortmund game about his movement in the box. He’s always in the right place. When the balls there, he’ll attack it.
"At those kind of things, he’s probably the best in the world, or up there. It’s just that certainty that he’s going to score. It feels every week like he’s going to get two or three goals. That feels normal already but it’s really not normal is it.
"His link up play was probably the one thing which Guardiola wanted him to improve, but his link up play is really good and the way he brings other people into the game is much better than I expected. Inside the box obviously, if there’s a chance, there’s a high chance it’s going to go in.
"Compared to Man City players in the last couple of years, that’s such a massive difference for them. Everybody has their own feelings about Haaland. He’s a whirlwind. He’s not a Messi type where he’ll take players on and score, it’s more getting him the ball inside the box and he’ll put it away.
"If he’s outside the box, it’s harder for him to make things happen, but obviously, Man City play to peoples’ strengths. They don’t get [İlkay] Gündoğan to play left-back. They get him in areas where he can hurt the opposition and it’ll be the same with Haaland."