Manchester City’s Ruben Dias reveals satisfaction for “crushing” for opposition forwards | OneFootball

Ruben Dias has revealed the love and satisfaction he gets from “crushing” opponents across the game, making them feel as though they “don’t stand a chance”.

The Portugal international has been a major success since joining Manchester City from SL Benfica in the summer of 2021, failing to go a single season without winning the Premier League title alongside Pep Guardiola.

Dias’ physicality has been well-suited to the Premier League in particular, and the relationships struck with a number of central defensive partners at the Etihad Stadium have largely made him undroppable in the biggest of matches.

Alongside the likes of John Stones, Manuel Akanji, and Nathan Ake in particular, Dias has remained a certain starter for Pep Guardiola and played a significant role in the ultimate triumphs across competitions over the last few seasons.

Speaking during a new piece of Manchester City club content and a dialogue with former club captain Andy Morrison, Ruben Dias issued a stern warning to opposition attackers and what he gets most fulfilment from during a 90 minutes of defensive responsibilities.

“Many different details. But probably the one I like the most is when I start to see, out of the control I can influence, I start to see frustrations on my opponents’ faces,” Dias said.

“When I start to see that frustration, I feel like I’m CRUSHING them… I LOVE IT! So in a game, the feeling I most like to bring on is when they feel like they don’t stand a chance, they can’t get in.”

Continuing by discussing one thing that he feels should come back into the game, or something that has been lost over time, Dias admitted that he wished he could be more aggressive and physical without punishment from match officials.

“I’d focus on something in terms of what has changed since way back, in terms of how aggressive you can be as a central defender, you can imagine with VAR – imagine today playing,” the Portugal international said.

“Every little touch, every little thing. The emotional control you need to have, and I see so many legends that were made especially as a defender, so many legends made through that aggressiveness and so much of it is not allowed today.”

Ruben Dias will certainly need to be at his imperious best over the coming weeks if Manchester City are to emerge from a run of four successive away trips without defeat, following on from the weekend’s home meeting with Southampton.