Pep Guardiola might have already revealed his Kevin De Bruyne replacement for Man City vs RB Leipzig

De Bruyne replacement already revealed?

Pep Guardiola has spoken increasingly in recent weeks about Kevin De Bruyne's position in the Manchester City squad, especially after dropping him for both recent Premier League clashes with Tottenham. De Bruyne will always be City's go-to man in the big games, although Guardiola has been more and more tempted to replace him with Julian Alvarez this season.

So if De Bruyne is absent at RB Leipzig this week, could Alvarez be the go-to replacement in Guardiola's eyes? The manager has pointed to Alvarez's ability to add another body in the box when he replaces De Bruyne, and if Guardiola wants to be more adventurous in the first leg of this Champions League last-16 first leg then maybe Alvarez is in line to step in rather than another midfielder.

Big Bernardo decision to make

Even before news of Aymeric Laporte's absence, Bernardo Silva's experimental stint at left-back was going to be a big talking point ahead of the Leipzig trip. A back three with Bernardo dropping into left-back worked against Aston Villa and Arsenal, but Nottingham Forest targeted that side at the weekend and pulled Bernardo out of position late on to steal a point.

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Dominik Szoboszlai would not need telling twice to get at that position for Leipzig, so returning Nathan Ake to left-back in a traditional back four could make sense this week. However, with Laporte and Dias not training on Tuesday, that takes away one defender to replace Bernardo, and perhaps means the Portuguese is needed to cover for De Bruyne higher up the field too.

Time for talk is over

This week, Ederson said City will attack the Champions League with the aim of