Understandably, much of the talk in today’s back pages surround last night’s 9-0 victory in the Carabao Cup. In today’s media watch, we take a look at player ratings from the match and hear from the opposition boss.
First up, we look at a comment from the Manchester Evening News.
Reflecting on the game, Simon Bajkowski states: “The sight of Bernardo Silva coming on with 25 minutes still to play can only have sunk Burton hearts further and the waves of yellow ebbed as the blue surged; they were queueing up to score as Walker converted Mahrez‘s cross to make it eight.
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“The ex-Leicester man made it onto the scoresheet with seven minutes to go to set up a frantic dash for double figures. In one of the only moments of relief for Burton, a tenth did not arrive.
“With 18 goals in their last three games, City are looking pretty formidable again.”
Johnathan Smith picked out Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane in his ESPN ratings, scoring the trio nine.
Smith scribes: “Kevin De Bruyne - Vital minutes in his legs as he returns to fitness after two knee injuries. He looks close to being at his very best with his dynamic running and pinpoint passes.
“Gabriel Jesus - Seems like things are finally going the Brazilian’s way after this four-goal performance. Barely had a touch in the first 30 minutes before exploding into life.
“Leroy Sane - Terrified the Burton defence every time the ball came anywhere near him. They couldn’t cope with his pace, intelligent running and passing.”
Stuart Brennan of the MEN also had some kind words to say about Jesus, scoring him a nine.
Brennan comments: “He shook off his low confidence to score four but, perhaps more importantly, that sharpness of thought and his sureness of movement were back.”
Next, we hear from opposition boss Nigel Clough.
Speaking after the match, the Burton boss told Sky Sports: “We didn’t expect anything less. The quality they have out there and the gulf between the teams, we actually feared it could be more.”
“It’s not very nice when you’re sitting there and the goals are going in and there’s absolutely nothing we can do to stop it. I didn’t think we did too much wrong, two or three goals we could do better. I didn’t think we did too badly tonight.
“It wasn’t about tonight, it was about the achievement of getting here, once we saw the other three teams we knew we were in trouble, it was just to what degree.
“You can’t buy them that experience that they’ve got tonight, there’s 18-year-old left-back Reece Hutchinson, and some of the younger players. Hopefully that’ll give him a taste of what he can have later in his career.”
That’s all for your media round-up, but we will be back tomorrow with more news and headlines from the back pages.
