THE PERFECT CITIZEN
De Bruyne thanks Guardiola for making him a top player
LONDON Bruyne’s impact has risen drastically, with the 26-year-old assisting 21 goals in 36 league games last season.
De Bruyne has provided nine assists and scored twice in 16 appearances across all competitions this campaign and the attacking midfielder praised his manager and the club’s successful transfers for improving the unbeaten side.
“Since Pep came to the club, he plays a style of football I like to play, so it makes it easy as a player,” De Bruyne told Sky Sports.
“I like it here, it is the perfect environment and since I came here there has been a lot of trust in me. I like the project they are doing from the moment I came here.
“There was an older team (when I first arrived), they did a lot of transfers, a lot of young people, they are building for the future... I am really happy here and I see myself being a long time here.”
De Bruyne, along with forwards Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus, has been instrumental in City’s LONDON: Southampton must find the right balance between a fastpaced offence and a solid defence that prevents counter-attacks if they are to improve results, midfielder Oriol Romeu said ahead of today’s Premier League game against Burnley.
Southampton are 10th in the standings after winning three and drawing four of their opening 10 games but the Saints have struggled to score, notching just nine goals in the competition so far.
Former Chelsea midfielder Romeu believes that the team are restricted by the fear of giving away goals on the counter. storming start to the season, which has seen them open a fivepoint lead at the top of the standings and qualify from their Champions League group.
City host fifth-placed Arsenal tomorrow and De Bruyne has urged his team to extend their advantage and heap pressure on their rivals on a weekend when title contenders Manchester United and champions Chelsea face off at Stamford Bridge.
“It is a very important one again. We have Arsenal and United have Chelsea, so there are a lot of things that can happen again,” he said. “If we win that game, it means that somebody else is also going to lose points with Arsenal.
“So it puts pressure on the rest,
Since Pep (Guardiola) came to the club, he plays a style of football I like to play, so it makes it easy as a player.
“Whenever we play against these teams we know how good they are defensively,” Romeu was quoted as saying by the Daily Echo.
“They (opponents) are clever, they are ready to run and recover and go for the counter-attack and that’s hard, because if you try and attack too much you can get killed by a counter-attack.
“We need to find that balance between being creative and offensive and not being punished by a counter-attack.”
The 26-year-old urged his team to be quicker on the ball to drag opposition players out of position and capitalise more on their it gives us a good advantage and it is always handy to have more points and to put pressure on the other people.” Reuters goal-scoring chances.
“We’d love to all be more creative and make a difference in the last third, but that’s difficult,” the Spaniard added.
“We need to be quicker with the ball, make them (opponents) run and pull them out of place. That will give us a bigger chance to get to the box and get more chances.”
Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina, who missed last week’s 11 draw with Brighton due to an ankle injury, has been ruled out of today’s clash, while forward Charlie Austin could get his first league start of the campaign. Reuters