City throw down gauntlet to De Bruyne
HE MUST BATTLE FOR HIS PLACE LIKE REST, SAYS PEP
RB LEIPZIG V MAN CITY 5.45PM, BT SPORT
PEP GUARDIOLA says Kevin De Bruyne is in no doubt that he needs to fight to win back his place.
The Belgian was out for a month after testing positive for Covid-19 but will start for Manchester City in tonight’s Champions League deadrubber at RB Leipzig.
The other midfielders have stepped up in De Bruyne’s absence, with Bernardo Silva outstanding and Guardiola hailing him as the Premier League’s best player on current form.
Although the City manager said De Bruyne, whose last start for the club was on November 6, has nothing to prove, he conceded the 30-year-old must regain the levels where he can be sure of once again being an automatic pick.
“He arrived back after the Euros in a difficult condition and played and played,” said Guardiola.
“After that he got coronavirus. He was growing in his physical condition and it was a setback.
“It’s normal because the people who suffer from coronavirus, the next days they feel so empty, so it’s step by step.
“He played 30 minutes at Watford, tomorrow he’ll start and we’ll see how many minutes he can play.
“Now he has to come back and fight for a position like everyone else.
But Kevin doesn’t have to show absolutely anything to me. He has to come back being himself, show himself he’s back and do what he has to do, like he has done the past five or six years. “Absolutely it’s a problem but of course the competition is so necessary in the team and he knows it, Bernardo knows it, Ilkay Gundogan knows it, and all the wingers and strikers know it. “They know they have to play good, playing five minutes, 10 minutes or 90 minutes.
“They have to show it for themselves, to play good because they have to.”
With City already through to the last 16 as Group A winners, Guardiola will use tonight’s game to give De Bruyne and others some much-needed match action.
England pair Phil Foden and Jack Grealish, who have also just returned from injury, are expected to start alongside City’s teenage sensation Cole Palmer. “We’re not playing for the points,” said Guardiola. “We are playing because we’re athletes, we want to win and to improve our standards – which for the last month have been really high – and try to continue the rhythm.”