Skip to main content

De Bruyne full of pep from Guardiola tactics at City

LONDON: Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne is enjoying playing under manager Pep Guardiola and credits the Spaniard’s tactics for helping him thrive at the Premier League leaders.
The Belgian international notched seven league goals and nine assists in 2015 but since Guardiola’s arrival last July, De 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 storming start to the season, which has seen them open a five-point lead at the top of the standings and qualify from their Champions League group.
City host fifth-placed Arsenal on Sunday 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,” De Bruyne added.
“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, it gives us a good advantage and it is always handy to have more points and to put pressure on the other people.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

‘Clean India’ mission not ending manual scavenging, activists say

MUMBAI:  A flagship government program to modernise India’s sanitation has failed to tackle the practice of low caste women clearing faeces by hand, and has even exacerbated the problem by building toilets not connected to water supplies, campaigners say. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission, with much fanfare after he took office in 2014, sweeping a Delhi street with a broom. Since then, thousands of toilets have been built across the country.But Dalit communities, especially women, are still forced to be manual scavengers, a euphemism for clearing faeces from dry toilets and open drains by hand, despite laws to end the practice. The workers have it harder now, activists said. “Swachh Bharat has diverted attention from ending manual scavenging, and makes it seem like the whole country is cleaning. But if that’s the case, then why are people still dying in septic tanks,” said activist Bezwada Wilson. “There is also no dis...

India’s bullet train project re-ignites debate on land for ‘public purpose’

MUMBAI:  Plans for India’s first bullet train, a $17-billion-dollar project, have sparked a debate on the definition of “public purpose” for land acquisitions which have become increasingly contentious. The 500-km- (310-mile-) long high-speed rail link promises to cut travel time between the financial hub of Mumbai and the industrial city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state by more than half to under three hours. The project, inaugurated earlier this month, will need about 825 hectares (2,000 acres) of land. The government has said it will complete the line by 2022, even as farmers along the proposed route held protests against giving up their land. They may have little say in the matter, as the state has a legal right to take private property for public purposes. But analysts say the definition of what constitutes public purpose needs revisiting, even for infrastructure projects. “When projects – airports, private colleges, bullet trains – benefit only a small percentage of ...

Cahill scores extra-time winner to keep Australia alive

SYDNEY:  Tim Cahill scored twice, including the extra-time winner, as Australia kept their World Cup hopes alive with a 2-1 victory over Syria in the second leg of the Asian playoff on Tuesday. The 3-2 aggregate victory sent the Socceroos into an intercontinental playoff in November against the fourth-placed team in North and Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF) qualifying with a World Cup spot on the line.Cahill scored Australia’s opener with a trademark header in the 13th minute but it was not until 96 minutes later that he kept his country on course for a fourth successive appearance at the World Cup finals with his 50th international goal. Syria made the perfect start when Omar Al Somah scored in the sixth minute to cancel out Australia’s away-goal advantage from the 1-1 first-leg draw but the war-torn nation’s dreams of securing a maiden World Cup appearance were dashed.