Guardiola says De Bruyne needs help returning to top form as Man City star reveals injury frustrations
The Manchester City midfielder is a man in a hurry after spending the first half of the season crocked.
But Guardiola insists City’s Premier League title defence is not just down to the Belgium magician, who has started four straight games for the first time this season but has only just started to feel 100 per cent sharp.
“In the last two games people tell me he’s back and now he’s fighting for the comeback, so…. But it’s everybody, not one player,” said Guardiola.
“When Kevin plays well it’s because the central defenders, the full-backs help him.
“I don’t put the pressure on one shoulders, one player, to solve our problems. I never did that, the reason we didn’t win was because it was not our best performance, that’s all.”
De Bruyne has suffered two knee injuries this season and has only put together a run of games this month.
When he returned he was desperate for minutes on the pitch to get him sharp for the crunch games in the Champions League and title race coming up.
That was the reason why he had strop after getting subbed in the EFL Cup win against Burton.
Only recently has he felt back to his best in terms of sharpness and finding the rhythm of matches.
And it has been difficult staying patient when he has been desperate to help City with their title defence.
De Bruyne told Belgian newspaper HLN: "The coaches always say that to me. I may have less patience than them. They didn't really need to slow me down.
“But you also know me for 10 years: I always want to push myself. You want to go back to that old level quickly. I have never been injured for so long. So that is new for me."
His progress stalled against Newcastle this week when he picked up a yellow card for taking a free-kick too quickly, then was subbed in case he got sent off.
Within a minute of leaving the pitch Rafa Benitez’s side had started their comeback in a 2-1 victory.
City centre-back Aymeric Laporte reckons Pep’s lads need to win all 14 games left to defend their title.
He says it is possible as they went on an 18-match winning streak last season on their way to becoming Centurions.
"I don’t think it’s over. There's still 14 games left and we will fight to the end. We are going to fight until the end," Laporte said.
“What we did last season can help us. We know how to do it, and have the squad to do it.
"We have a great team no matter what the result was so I'm not worried about the performance and the players we have in our squad. Hopefully we can improve and we can do better in our upcoming games.
“We just need to avoid the mistakes in games, learn from them and focus on every game until the end.”
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