Forget the goals, king of the assists Kev is still a star
PEP Guardiola has lavished praise on Kevin de Bruyne for the way he has sacrificed his personal statistics for the good of the City team.
The Blues midfielder has only scored five times this season, compared to the 16 he netted in his debut campaign.
But De Bruyne has been asked to play a slightly deeper role this season, linking the defence to attacking players Sergio Aguero, Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and David Silva.
And while his goalscoring tally is down, his assists have rocketed from nine to 14 and he is top of the Premier League chart for setting up his teammates.
De Bruyne was at it again at Southampton on Saturday, breaking from deep and unselfishly squaring for Sane to score the decisive second goal in a 3-0 win, before a delightful cross for Aguero to head the third.
He recently said of his positional switch: “I think the things I’m doing this year are more collective, while probably last year individually was better for me. But I have a different role now, playing deeper, so I know people are comparing stats and goals but I think I’m doing a better job than I did last year.”
That attitude is music to the ears of Guardiola, who spurns individual egotists and believes implicitly in the team ethic.
“You cannot do that if you are not a good guy, you cannot do that if you are not humble, if you are not shy, if you think just of yourself and not your team,” said Guardiola when asked of the way De Bruyne has adapted his game this season. “I have spoken with him many times about his favourite position but he says ‘It doesn’t matter, I want to play, I adapt’.”
De Bruyne has not been at his best in the last few weeks, only producing his topt form in patches, but Guardiola said there was a good reason for that.
“He plays a lot of minutes - in the last games he was a little bit down but that is because he has a lot of minutes in his legs. He’s an important player for us because in the last metres he is a guy who creates more.”
The manager had also not failed to notice De Bruyne is top of the table for hitting the woodwork most!
“We cannot forget he has hit the post seven or eight times,” said Guardiola.
“We have hit the post 18 times this season, eight times with Kevin de Bruyne, we are in that position where we are little unlucky with that.
“But he gives us a lot and is a fantastic player.”