Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has hailed Kevin De Bruyne as the best midfielder in the world as he prepares for the new Premier League campaign. City playmaker De Bruyne was named the Professional Footballers’ Association’s player of the year this week after an outstanding 2019/20 campaign in which he clocked up a Premier League record-equalling 20 assists. “He is a masterclass player, one of the best players I have ever trained in my life,” said Guardiola in a new documentary about De Bruyne’s career, Made in Belgium. “Right now, he is the best. Right now, in the midfield position, he is the best.”
Former City captain Vincent Kompany believes Guardiola has been the perfect manager for De Bruyne. City have won two Premier League titles and four other major domestic trophies since the Catalan, renowned for his high-intensity, fluid style of play, took charge at the Etihad Stadium in 2016.
De Bruyne, who joined City from Wolfsburg a year before Guardiola’s arrival, feels the team’s style suits him well. The 29-year-old, who also scored 16 goals in all competitions last term, said: “For me, playing style is the most important. I like to play football in the way in which we do — attacking, on the floor, lots of intensity. As a player you need to find teams or playing styles that suit you. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you’re doing and if you enjoy it you’re going to play better.”
Liverpool don’t need to spend like Chelsea, says Klopp
Spending huge amounts of money in the transfer market, like Chelsea have done this summer, does not guarantee success as clubs must do the hard work on the training ground to integrate new signings, Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp has said.
Chelsea, owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, have spent around 200mn pounds ($259.88mn).
Premier League champions Liverpool, who finished 33 points ahead of Frank Lampard’s side last season, have signed only left-back Konstantinos Tsimikas from Olympiakos Piraeus. “We live in a world at the moment with a lot of uncertainty,” Klopp said.
“For some clubs it’s less important how uncertain the future is: those owned by countries, oligarchs, that’s the truth. We’re a different kind of club. We got to the Champions League final two years ago, we won it last year, and became Premier League champions last season by being the club we are. We cannot just change overnight and say, ‘So now we want to behave like Chelsea’. They are signing a lot of players. That can be an advantage but that means they have to fit together pretty quickly. You cannot bring in the 11 best players and hope a week later they play the best football ever. It’s about working together on the training ground.”
Liverpool begin their title defence against newly-promoted Leeds United on Sept. 12 while Chelsea face Brighton & Hove Albion two days later.
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