Pep Guardiola is making his job ‘far more complicated than it needs to be’ at Manchester City by rotating Kevin De Bruyne out of the team.
That’s according to journalist Jan Mulder, who says fans are getting ‘no value for money’ from the Blues when he is left out of the side.
De Bruyne is arguably the best midfielder in Europe at this moment in time, having established himself as a star since his arrival from Wolfsburg in 2015.
Since then he has racked up 140 assists and 92 goals in 342 games for the club, playing a key role in each of their title successes and other trophy wins, particularly under Pep Guardiola.
Now 31-years-old, he is seen as the elder statesmen of this current iteration of Manchester City, with the Belgian even joking recently that some people have written him off or claimed he is on the wane.
That’s not an opinion shared at the Etihad, where he has 35 appearances in all competitions this season, but Pep Guardiola has elected to rotate him out of the team this season, leaving him on the bench for clashes against Copenhagen and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
He’s also been left out of the games against Tottenham and Bournemouth in the Premier League, as well as only being given 11 minutes in the recent win over Crystal Palace.
“On Saturday 11 March last, I was in London and got the hunch to go to Crystal Palace versus Manchester City at Selhurst Park in the morning,” he wrote in HUMO.
“I wanted to enjoy an hour and a half of Kevin De Bruyne, the virtuoso Belgian who reads the game like no other and is the draw in Manchester City’s file.
“I paid the peppery admission ticket, sat down in my seat and listened to the stadium speaker with the line-ups. De Bruyne was not participating.
“Manager Guardiola: ‘I know how important Kevin is. But at the same time, there are moments in a season when form goes up and down.
“Sometimes one player can suddenly be better than another. That is normal. Every match is different. I choose my players specifically according to a particular match.’
“These are the strike-through theories of a coach who gets a bit carried away and makes his job far more complicated than it needs to be. En passant, he cheats ticket buyers.
“De Bruyne himself shrugged and said: ‘It is as it is.’ And where is the customer? Nowhere. He has no right to speak. He pays the price demanded but gets no value for money. Money back!”
