Trusted leader De Bruyne given free role by Pep to guide Blues

He gives his ideas on how the team should act but he just lets me be me Kevin de Bruyne on Pep Guardiola

KEVIN De Bruyne has expanded on his role in the City squad, revealing that manager Pep Guardiola trusts him to organise the team on the field.

De Bruyne says he does not speak to Guardiola much over tactics as they share a similar philosophy, as he explained how Guardiola has changed City’s approach from top to bottom in the last four seasons.

“He lets me be myself a lot of the time,” De Bruyne told Soccer AM.

“Obviously I speak to the manager quite often, but a lot of times it’s not about football. He gives his ideas on how the team should act in a certain period or space in the field. Then after he lets me be me. I think for the other guys he says something more but he lets me be free in a lot of stuff.

“I think first of all we have the same philosophy so that makes it easier for us both and in one way he knows I’m always going to work hard that’s my main thing. The rest comes after, so even if I have a really bad game I’m still going to do my job for the team and I think he appreciates that and the way I am as a player.”

That responsibility on the pitch is something De Bruyne relishes, as he revealed his shared philosophy with Guardiola gives him an important role during a match.

“He helped me in a way to structure the team,” De Bruyne continued.

“I’m somebody who understands really quickly how the team is playing, how it should move. Obviously in the game there’s barriers and people do different things. In the time that I’ve played in City now for five years I understand how people want the ball, it’s really important for me because obviously I’m feeding a lot of people at the end of the action.

“I have to do something else giving the ball to Kun [Aguero] or giving the ball to Raheem [Sterling] because they are different players and they understand the game and want something else. So I need to learn that as quick as possible.”

However, De Bruyne also made a point of detailing just how much information Guardiola gives to his players in preparation for a matchday, describing City’s approach as the most difficult way of playing in the Premier League “Tactically he’s just different,” the midfielder explained. “Obviously you have a lot of different styles in football and the way that we play is really complicated. The risks we take to be in possession all the time there’s also a lot of risk of when we lose the ball we’re going to be open. So we have to look at both sides of the ball, so a lot of time we work on the defensive side when we just lose the ball and there’s a lot of risk. Obviously every tactic is the same, I don’t know other tactics, but I think it’s way more difficult to do what we do and it takes way more time to learn it. “Because it’s that complicated against a lot of teams.”