Fine without him before because we had gundy
I guess so?
I don't remember Gundogan playing that much of a key role during the 18/19 season, at least not until the very end, and even then he tended to play behind the midfield instead of Fernandinho. It was Bernardo who filled in directly for Kevin that year and he won Player of the Season, didn't he? I'm all for a repeat performance.
All I remember from the 18/19 season is people complaining that Gundogan was too slow and offered nothing to the team.
And that was when Kevin did his ACL and was out from August until January - he didn't start three consecutive league games until February. He's going to be back about 4-5 weeks sooner this time. If we get Paqueta and Doku over the line then we'll be okay til Christmas, then Kevin can come back fit for the second half of the season.
It's always the same with City - if we're within 5 to 8 points of top spot come February/March time we tend to go on and win the league. The squad we've got is more than capable of keeping close to the leaders (or just going top and staying there) for that long, so when the time comes we can get Kev back and push on.
Obviously I'd rather we had De Bruyne fit and ready from tomorrow night but the players we've got will fill in just fine. Foden, Bernardo, Kovacic, Grealish (potentially Paqueta and Doku), that's enough to keep things ticking until Kev comes back. And honestly, Pep could be cooking up something right now that none of us have thought of.
And even if it goes tits up while Kev's gone (which it probably won't), we were miles behind Arsenal and just about dead and buried in January last season. Players falling out with Pep, Cancelo running off to Bayern, Pep having to throw in Rico Lewis out of nowhere just to steady the ship. And then we went and won the treble.
So who knows - maybe that Perrone fella has something up his sleeve and unexpectedly has a breakout season a la Rico last season. Maybe Foden and Grealish play centrally a lot more often and score loads. Seasons are long, strange, chaotic. There's just as much chance of Liverpool losing Salah, Arsenal losing Saka, etc.
Things happen. Just roll with it.
