Former Belgian defender believes Guardiola right man to help Man City star ‘surpass himself’

Unlike the vast majority of footballers who cost over £60m, Kevin de Bruyne goes about his business without bringing too much attention to himself.

Racking up the goals and the assists at Manchester City since his arrival, the Belgian midfielder appears to be one the players to have benefitted the most from the arrival of Pep Guardiola.

Already excelling under Manuel Pellegrini, De Bruyne has adapted to play differently under the Spaniard, sitting a bit deeper, scoring fewer goals but providing his teammates with more goalscoring opportunities than before, shown in his number of league assists, which shot up from nine to 21 last year.

Talking about the Manchester City star on Proximus 11, former Royal Excel Mouscron defender Alexandre Teklak, now pundit, discussed how Guardiola’s style has helped De Bruyne.

Embed from Getty Images

He said: “I think Guardiola has moulded his team around De Bruyne. He must’ve told himself that with someone of de Bruyne’s passing quality, he needed to get people moving around him, because if he played in a, let’s say, standard team, I don’t think he’d be as performant.

“He really needs other players around him to shine, and Guardiola ensures that. I think he’s the manager who’s going to help him surpass himself, because de Bruyne can’t do everything on his own. Hazard can, but de Bruyne needs others around him to be useful in a team.”

All this praise has come off the back of the Belgian’s man of the match performance against Liverpool at the weekend, where he assisted his teammates twice in the game, helping them complete a 5-0 rout of Jürgen Klopp’s side following Sadio Mané’s sending off.