Manchester City's De Bruyne loves Pep Guardiola's approach
- Nima Tavallaey Roodsari
"I played this position when I was in Werder Bremen, same style, so I’m used to it" De Bruyne begins before explaining the difference this time around is Pep Guardiola. "With this trainer everybody knows where he is, in position, so it makes it a lot easier for me. He’s intense and detailed. Everybody knows what they have to do with the ball and without the ball. I never had a manager so detailed in every moment and aspect of the game, and saying what to do. Some trainers just say whatever, ‘just play’. There’s a certain freedom here but a lot of discipline. The more you come up the pitch, the more freedom there is. In the first 60 metres of the pitch, everybody knows exactly what they need to do to help the team go up. Everybody has to be in position or run to make options for the other guys, and that’s why we can play so much from the back."
De Bruyne then spoke about the reasons why he never worked out with then Chelsea manager José Mourinho which prompted him to leave the club in the end: "I just said I can play, I have no statistics, two games, what do you want me to do? I had a feeling I wasn’t even going to play. Even if he said you’re going to play more games, from two games I was maybe going to go to five. It was, for me, a good decision to leave. For them, in the end, it was also a good decision. They sold me for more money for a player who didn’t play. I played in Germany for a good year, so that’s why my value went up. But I went to Wolfsburg just to play football. I hate it when I cannot contribute."
The Belgian playmaker is not bitter about his time with Chelsea but is one he values a lot stating that "I’ve always had a great determination to make something in football. I had the same in Chelsea, the determination to show I’m a very good footballer. Maybe Chelsea at that time was not a bright period but it was a good experience for me to learn. It was one of the most important pieces in my career."