Kevin De Bruyne should be Pep Guardiola's first pick every week... classy Belgian stands out even among Man City's embarrassment of riches
- Kevin De Bruyne has been excellent for Manchester City so far this season
- The Belgian maestro has already contributed three assists in early weeks
- De Bruyne was highly influential in wins over Liverpool and Feyenoord this week
- The £55m City paid for the Belgian back in 2015 has come to look like a bargain
Jamie Redknapp said he would be his first pick in any Premier League team and Pep Guardiola labelled him one of the best players on the planet.
Kevin De Bruyne has become Manchester City's midfield maestro, whose forte is to win the ball back then do something special with it.
If a team tried to sign him tomorrow, how much would he cost? Far more than the £55million that City paid for him in 2015 on current form, that much is certain.
Kevin De Bruyne has been excellent once again for Manchester City this season
The classy Belgian was at the centre of things as City thrashed Feyenoord 4-0 on Tuesday
De Bruyne choreographed City's 4-0 win over Feyenoord in the Champions League on Wednesday, having likewise pulled the strings in their 5-0 Premier League win over Liverpool.
Against the former, he set up one goal. Against the latter, he set up two.
De Bruyne finished last season with a league-high 18 assists. He's up and running this term too.
'I get more joy from an assist sometimes, just in the way I feel,' De Bruyne said this week. 'It's nice to score a goal but I don't get in that type of position too many times.
'I am enjoying my football and the goals will come. As long as we win I don't care. I get just as much pleasure from an assist, if not more.'
It is undoubtedly that unselfishness that Guardiola adores about the 26-year-old, who also said he is simply 'going with the flow' this season.
Pep Guardiola adores the 26-year-old, one of the first names on his teamsheet each week
De Bruyne was also instrumental in City's 5-0 thrashing of Liverpool last weekend
By being deployed deeper, he is able to dictate the tempo for City, like David Silva has done so on a number of occasions.
De Bruyne is sceptical of Guardiola's comments, believing it to be a ploy to put pressure on him, though this is a player thriving and well worthy of praise.
He has already made more tackles and won more loose balls than at the same stage of last season, indicating how he has taken on other jobs this year.
Yet while he is doing the dirty work, he is still providing moments of magic, such as his inch-perfect through-ball for Sergio Aguero against Liverpool.
It of course helps that those ahead of him, such as Leroy Sane, are constantly running, though that assist for Aguero showed his ingenuity.
With his first touch, he controlled the ball, and there were still seven Liverpool players closer to the goal than him. With his second, De Bruyne left Aguero with only Simon Mignolet to beat. Brilliant.
Cheeky De Bruyne walks off with a photographer's camera during City training this week
De Bruyne takes a few snaps of his team-mates during their training session
What happened between Jose Mourinho and De Bruyne is well documented. The former Chelsea manager allowed the player to leave for Wolfsburg for £18m in 2014, before he was bought by City a year later and the Germans made a healthy profit.
Mourinho later accused De Bruyne of acting like an 'upset kid' in training at Chelsea – a claim which De Bruyne has since challenged.
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has said it is 'a pity' he does not have the midfielder's services now and, in truth, that's the best way for him to get back at Mourinho.
Rather than speaking out against the man who sold him, De Bruyne is attempting to show him why he made a mistake.
Guardiola is well aware he has an abundance of attackers – with Sane, Silva, Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and so on – and cannot use them all at once. He's spoilt for choice.
De Bruyne was ditched by Jose Mourinho at Chelsea and is determined to prove him wrong
De Bruyne made just nine appearances for Chelsea before being sold to Wolfsburg
De Bruyne says he and his City team-mates know that too, having come to terms with the fact that there will be games when some of them have to sit on the substitutes' bench.
At this rate, De Bruyne will not be one of those dropped. Not for any of the must-win games, anyway.
Guardiola may well have a secret motive in lavishing De Bruyne with praise and placing him as one of the world's best.
But City's boss isn't the only one saying so.
'Imagine you could start a Premier League team from scratch and sign any player,' Redknapp wrote in his column for Sportsmail this week. 'Kevin De Bruyne would be my first pick — Pep Guardiola is turning him into the complete midfield player.'
Though he's unlikely to admit it, Mourinho may be thinking the same.
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