‘Most goals in a single season’ Gundogan, awakening to scoring late

▲ Man City wins 5-0 with multi-goals against West Brom by Gundogan ▲ Gundogan, 7 goals in 8 matches including 3 consecutive goals in recent PL matches ▲ Gundogan, the most single-season league goal in personal history (previously 6 goals) ▲ Gundogan, the most goals in a single season with 9 goals in the official tournament

[골닷컴] Reporter Kim Hyun-min = Ilkai Gundogan, who boasts a sense of scoring that has recently reached the peak, scored multiple goals against West Brom and set the record for the most goals in a single season.

Manchester City (Man City) won 5-0 in the 20th round of the 2020/21 Premier League (PL) against West Brom at The Hawthorne’s away. Along with this, Man City succeeded in retaking the PL 1st place with 12 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses and 41 points, beating Manchester United (40 points).

In fact, Man City was in an emergency ahead of West Brom. Ace Kevin De Breiner was injured in a tough tackle by Jack Greeley in the last match against Aston Villa, leaving him out of power. Still, Man City was dominated by the outlook that De Breiner’s vacancy would be even bigger, as veteran striker Sergio Aguero and another striker Gabriel Jesus were struggling with condition due to frequent injuries.

However, in Man City, there was a Gundogan boasting a condition that has recently reached its peak. Five minutes after the start of the match, Gündogan managed to catch a long pass from right flank defender Juan Cancellu with a fantastic ball touch and scored the opening goal early with a mid-range shot.

On the 20th minute, Bernardo Silva’s pass by Cancello’s extra goal led to a 2-0 lead. On the 30th minute, Gündogan crossed the defender with a folding motion following an interception from an opponent. . From the interception to the shooting following the breakthrough, it was a goal made entirely by personal strength.

Man City ended the first half with 4-0. Riyadh Marez, who received a cross from Raheem Sterling in the extra time (45+1 minutes), folded to the center and scored a goal with a proprietary left-footed shot.

After scoring four goals in the first half and getting a free lead, Man City manager Pep Guardiola managed to beat defender Aymeric Laporte and flank striker Ferran Torres, excluding Gündogan and Phil Foden, who had recently recorded a lot of playing time in 7 minutes in the second half. He started to arrange his physical strength while making a replacement. In the 12th minute of the second half, Marez’s grounder cross was pushed lightly by Sterling from the far post, ending a 5-0 win.

Gundogan has succeeded in scoring three consecutive PL games by adding multiple goals to West Brom. What’s even more surprising is that they’ve been scoring 7 goals in their last 8 PL games. Along with this, he climbed to the top of the team’s scoring goals (7 goals and 6 Sterling goals in second place).

In fact, Gundogan wasn’t a player who had a very close relationship with the original goal. Even in Nuremberg, who played as an offensive midfielder while listening to being a genius midfielder as a child, in the 2010/11 season, he played 25 games in the Bundesliga with 5 goals and 3 assists. Later, in the summer of 2011, he moved to Borussia Dortmund, changing his position as central midfielder, and was moving away from the goal. His most league goals in one season of his career were all six PL goals for Man City in the 2018/19 season.

However, this season, when he just turned around, he played 14 games and scored 7 goals, breaking the record for the most goals in the league in a single season. It can’t be a surprising score.

League isn’t everything. He has also played in five matches in the Champions League, scoring two goals. In addition, he achieved the record of the most personal goals with 9 goals in the official tournament (the official tournament score within the team was tied for first place with Sterling and Foden).

Man City faced a crisis at the beginning of the season as Aguero and Jesus were injured at the same time, and the defense stabilized with the signing of Hubin Dias, but was in the middle of the PL (9th place) even in the ninth round due to the lack of scoring power.

However, after Gündogan, who had been absent due to a positive Corona 19 reaction at the beginning of the season, gradually began to show off his aggressive talent, Man City resolved the scoring problem. For nothing, Man City is not continuing an undefeated march in the 14 PL matches Gündogan played (on the other hand, 1 win, 2 draws and 2 losses in 5 games without Gündogan).

Obviously, from a long-term perspective, the power outage due to De Breiner’s injury poses a risk of being a major problem. Nevertheless, it seems that Man City will be able to overcome this crisis well because it has a good relationship. In the absence of De Breiner, the player who is holding the key to success or failure in Man City is Gundogan.